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My name is Veronica Armstrong, I'm 23 years of age.
I'm studying Criminal Justice at Wake Technical Community College.
At the age of fourteen, I was taken from my mother and placed in foster care.
From there, I was placed in a home down in Oxford. I did not like it there.
It was a lock down facility, my first home.
The whole time I was there, I couldn't attend school.
I was there for like 3 to 4 months and could not attend school.
I was finally placed at the Haven House here in Raleigh, North Carolina.
It's a transitional home. I remained there for 14 days, approximately 2 weeks.
After that, I was moved to a foster home down in Erwin, North Carolina.
My name is Monica Armstrong, I'm 23.
I am going for an Associate's in Science as well as a Pharmacy Technician degree.
I had an extremely hard time adjusting.
Meaning behavior issues, real rebelious, you know, felt the need to be at home.
Felt that if I wasn't going to be given what I thought my mom had gave me, why take me out of my home?
So, it took me a long, a very long time to adjust to that.
We face challenges that are not just academic or financial,
they may be social, interpersonal, they may relate to their housing situation.
And to make that more complicated, they're all individually based,
so no one participant has the same challenges or grouping of challenges.
My name is Demetrius Johnson. I'm 21 years old.
I'm taking Business Administration at Wake Tech.
When I was about 7 years old, I entered foster care
moved around for a couple of years with different families.
At exactly 18, my sister and I were asked by our foster mom
to find some place to go and we was on a rampage searching.
Now that was a scary moment.
It was like 2 weeks you have to go.
We all assume that what we really needed was a lot of money.
We certainly need financial support to make this program go.
But it's not simply doling out dollars.
What these young people need most is a nuclear structure
around them that helps them be successful.
My first two years here at Wake Tech were not good.
I took a year off after high school, but I did not make the adjustment
like a normal teenager or youth would have
transitioning out of high school to college.
It was not good for me at all.
We've recruited corporate citizens to match up with each student.
Each student has a mentor, a life mentor.
That's to help address social skills and to
give them a next level confidant to provide
yet more structure in their day-to-day.
The coordinators have been great.
As far as my living situation, they've definitely
been supportive when I've been struggling.
When I'm not sure what decision to make, they gave advice.
I don't care what class you're taking,
they will provide you a mentor and at any cost.
what degree it is...
they will provide you a mentor and at any cost.
They really do care for you
and what you're going through.
There's nothing they will not do to help you succeed.
Our academic success rates are hugely improved.
But what's more important is our students' attention
to detail and their understanding of basic discipline.
Being on time, working in advance,
having a plan, budgeting.
Some of the areas that we're really working
on in life skills - we're seeing a tremendous improvement there.
To me, those are not incremental, those are exponential changes.
It's been a great opportunity to stay focused
and get a second chance at my studies.
I wasn't doing too well at the beginning,
but after gaining focus I believe I'm doing a lot better.
The great thing about this program is you can
not only give money, but you can give of your time
which is equally if not more important.
There's no greater opportunity and there's nothing better
for us to do as human beings than to improve
and help those around us to be better.
I really appreciate their help.
For the ones I know personally,
I love them to death.
Everything about them, their mentality, you know, everything.
For those I don't know,
I really appreciate you believing in me.
It helps me believe in me.