Invisible vulnerability: Participant perceptions of a campus-based program for students without caregivers

Abstract

The presence of caregivers and stable familial networks are important to young adults' successful pathways to and through college. One commonly recognized group that often lack these resources are students transitioning out of the foster care system. Universities have begun to acknowledge the layers of structured challenges these youth face as college students and have begun to offer programs to increase their retention and persistence rates; researchers, in response, have begun to examine the structure and importance of these programs to foster care alumni student success. The current study examines one grassroots programmatic effort to respond to this population using in-depth, semi-structured interviews with program participants. Most centrally, the findings illuminate student perceptions of the benefits of the program alongside continued difficulties they face that challenge their ability to be successful as college students. Additionally, though, reflecting the population the program serves, this research examines both students formally defined by the state as foster care alumni as well as students who have a history of serious caregiver instability/absence, residential mobility, and trauma. Thus, the findings also provide evidence that undergraduate students who share these characteristics with foster care alumni have some parallel needs that institutions of higher education must address to render this broader population visible and to better support their efforts to obtain a college degree.