A Model HBCU Program Nurtures Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care

At Liv­ing­stone Col­lege, stu­dents who have aged out of fos­ter care are find­ing the sup­port they need to stay in school and thrive. The pri­vate, his­tor­i­cal­ly Black col­lege in Sal­is­bury, North Car­oli­na, offers a cam­pus sup­port pro­gram tai­lored to their needs. The ini­tia­tive was found­ed in Octo­ber 2022 by Livingstone’s 13^th pres­i­dent, Antho­ny J. Davis, Ph.D., who under­stands the jour­ney first­hand after nav­i­gat­ing col­lege him­self fol­low­ing time in fos­ter care. The H.O.P.E. Eman­ci­pa­tion Project — which stands for heal­ing, oppor­tu­ni­ty, prepa­ra­tion and empow­er­ment — reflects Davis’ lived expe­ri­ences and the college’s com­mit­ment to stu­dent success. 

The H.O.P.E. cam­pus sup­port pro­gram meets these chal­lenges with a holis­tic, year-round approach that pro­vides sta­bil­i­ty, struc­ture and strong rela­tion­ships, with an invest­ment of about $35,000 per student: 

• dai­ly meals pre­pared by a cam­pus chef;
• full cov­er­age of tuition and fees;
• coor­di­nat­ed men­tal health care;
• year-round, on-cam­pus hous­ing, with oppor­tu­ni­ties to live with oth­er Pres­i­dent 13 scholars;
• month­ly cohort meet­ings for peer con­nec­tion and mentoring;
• a trained and cer­ti­fied suc­cess coach;
• bi-week­ly progress reviews;
• access to tutor­ing through the Cam­pus Suc­cess Cen­ter; and
• con­nec­tion to Liv­ing­stone College’s Career Readi­ness Institute.

Since June 2024, the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion has sup­port­ed imple­men­ta­tion through tech­ni­cal assis­tance, train­ing and lim­it­ed fund­ing for per­son­nel and pro­gram participants. 

From Fos­ter Care to Col­lege Pres­i­dent: Dr. Davis’ Journey

An esti­mat­ed 29% to 64% of young peo­ple with fos­ter care expe­ri­ence enroll in post­sec­ondary pro­grams, but only about 8% to 12% com­plete a two- or four-year degree by their mid­dle to late 20s. The com­ple­tion rate for their peers in the gen­er­al pop­u­la­tion is 49%. This five-fold gap reflects bar­ri­ers that too often derail stu­dents from paths to graduation. 

Dr. Davis knows this first­hand. On the day he was born, his grand­moth­er, who had been the pri­ma­ry care­giv­er to his teenage moth­er, passed away. As a result, he and his moth­er were placed in fos­ter care and sep­a­rat­ed. Dr. Davis remained in care until short­ly before aging out. At age 17, he eman­ci­pat­ed him­self from care and joined the Unit­ed States Air Force. Lat­er, at age 24, he reunit­ed with his bio­log­i­cal mother. 

Dr. Davis went on to grad­u­ate from Liv­ing­stone Col­lege in 2001 with a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion. He earned his doc­tor­al degree from Unit­ed The­o­log­i­cal Sem­i­nary. Then, in Octo­ber 2022, he returned to his alma mater as its pres­i­dent and launched H.O.P.E.

Grow­ing the H.O.P.E. Pro­gram and Invest­ing in Stu­dent Success

What began with sev­en stu­dents now serves 22 and will wel­come a new class of fresh­man in Fall 2026. The pro­gram also pro­duced its first grad­u­ate in 2025. Stu­dents in the pro­gram are known as the Pres­i­dent 13 Schol­ars, a des­ig­na­tion that reflects both Davis’ lead­er­ship and per­son­al invest­ment in their success. 

Liv­ing­stone Col­lege plans to expand the pro­gram. It wants to offer seniors on-cam­pus apart­ments and help them build inde­pen­dent liv­ing skills while stay­ing con­nect­ed through men­tor­ship. The col­lege con­tin­ues refin­ing its cam­pus sup­port mod­el and strength­en­ing part­ner­ships to ensure every stu­dent has the tools to com­plete col­lege and launch a career. 

Find­ing Belong­ing in Col­lege: A Pres­i­dent 13 Scholar’s Experience

Dr. Davis and the H.O.P.E. team col­lab­o­rate with social ser­vice agen­cies and high schools to recruit future schol­ars. He shares his sto­ry with each schol­ar dur­ing orientation. 

“See­ing where Dr. Davis start­ed and where he is now moti­vates me,” said Kevin Jamil Seabrook, a Pres­i­dent 13 Schol­ar and sopho­more study­ing culi­nary arts and hos­pi­tal­i­ty man­age­ment. ​“He under­stands what stu­dents like us need.” 

Through the pro­gram, Seabrook learned to build a resume and helped orga­nize a career fair. He par­tic­i­pates in coach­ing ses­sions and month­ly meet­ings with oth­er Pres­i­dent 13 schol­ars that have helped him build rela­tion­ships with peers who’ve had sim­i­lar experiences. 

How the Pro­grams like H.O.P.E. Sup­port Stu­dents From Fos­ter Care

H.O.P.E. is not an iso­lat­ed effort — it’s part of a grow­ing, evi­dence-informed movement. 

The first cam­pus sup­port pro­gram for stu­dents with expe­ri­ence in fos­ter care launched at Cal State Fuller­ton in 1998. With over 375 pro­grams nation­wide, these ini­tia­tives pro­vide stu­dents with des­ig­nat­ed staff or coach­es who help them nav­i­gate the com­plex­i­ties of col­lege while sup­port­ing the unique needs they have because of their fos­ter care experience. 

Recent research high­lights why tar­get­ed cam­pus sup­port pro­grams like H.O.P.E. are need­ed. Nation­al­ly, Black teens and old­er youth are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly rep­re­sent­ed in fos­ter care and more like­ly to age out with­out a per­ma­nent fam­i­ly or oth­er adult care­givers who can sup­port their aca­d­e­m­ic aspi­ra­tions and the steep climb to eco­nom­ic sta­bil­i­ty. Stu­dents who have expe­ri­enced fos­ter care — and par­tic­u­lar­ly those who exit­ed with­out a per­ma­nent fam­i­ly or care­giv­er — often face obsta­cles that make com­plet­ing col­lege dif­fi­cult, including: 

• hous­ing insecurity;
• lost finan­cial support;
• men­tal health needs; and
• lack of sup­port­ive connections.

“As col­leges and child wel­fare sys­tems explore ways to close per­sis­tent gaps in post­sec­ondary suc­cess, invest­ing in holis­tic approach­es — and in the exper­tise of those who have expe­ri­enced the sys­tem — will be cru­cial,” said Feli­cia Kel­lum, a senior asso­ciate with the Casey Foundation’s Fam­i­ly Well-Being Strat­e­gy Group and liai­son to Livingstone’s project. ​“The H.O.P.E. Eman­ci­pa­tion Project has the poten­tial to be a best-prac­tice mod­el for oth­er HBCUs to improve edu­ca­tion­al out­comes for youth who have aged out of fos­ter care.”