College students head home for the holidays with thoughts of mom’s cooking, family get-togethers, seeing old friends and all the comforts of home.
But what if you’re a foster youth who’s aged out of the system at age 18? Where’s “home?”
For the graduates of San Diego County’s San Pasqual Academy (SPA), that answer is easy.
The academy – the first-in-the-nation residential educational campus for foster youth – opens its doors during holidays and breaks from school so graduates can return “home.”
“It’s meant security,” said Simone, a 2009 SPA graduate. “It makes you feel stable.
“I’ve never been afraid of where I would be going during breaks.”
Simone graduated this month from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and has been returning to the academy for every break since she graduated.
“Seeing all the other kids get to go home – it’s leveled the playing field with my peers,” she said. “I go home too on breaks and see my family.
“Through college I still need that consistency, and there’s no other place like San Pasqual Academy.”
Simone arrived at SPA with her three siblings at age 13. She said at the time it was the only option to stay together as a family.
“This is the only place that would take four teenagers together.”
All of her siblings have also graduated or are in college. As a child development major, she likes to hold up her sibling’s success as an example for foster youth currently attending SPA.
“I can tell them that it’s possible to do anything and they just have to apply themselves,” she said.
During her breaks she works at the academy with teens getting ready to age out of the foster youth system. She helps them with job skills, resumes and other general abilities they will need once they live independently.
“It’s fun to help push them toward success,” she said. “A lot of the kids know me because I’ve come back here all four years.”
Lorelye enjoys seeing her former classmates when she returns to SPA. The San Francisco State junior graduated from the academy in 2011.
She lives in off-campus housing in San Francisco, but the holidays would still be lonely without the opportunity to return to SPA.
“Everyone’s going home so I don’t want to stay there,” she said. “There are always things to do in the city, but I don’t like staying up there.”
Instead, she prefers to come back and see her academy family.
“There’s always a few people from my class that always come back on breaks,” she said. “There are three or four of us that are always hanging out. This is home.”
The houseparents Lorelye lived with were the ones who hosted this year’s annual academy Christmas dinner. (Students at the academy live in family-style homes with houseparents).
“I’m a vegetarian and they had vegetarian lasagna, so I was happy,” she said. “They take care of you.”
Jessica, a Sacramento State University sophomore, has been back to the academy every breaks since she graduated in 2012.
“I don’t have that awkward moment where I don’t have anywhere to go,” she said. “All of my friends at school can go back home, and it’s comforting to know I have some place to go.”
She’s kept in constant contact with her SPA houseparents and college advisor and enjoys spending holidays with them.
“Everything is familiar here,” said Jessica. “I call my houseparents Mom and Dad – they’re the ones that put up with me growing up.
“They are always there for you.”
Besides the visits on college breaks, Jessica says there is a constant stream of emails and phone calls with her houseparents and the college advisor that offer her support and encouragement.
“I know I always have a place to come back to here,” she said. “But I know there comes a point where you have to grow up.”
