July 17, 2007

Quarterback calls a play for education

Former Helix High star bankrolls scholarship for ex-foster children
By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Candy Morales hasn't caught many breaks.

She was born to a prostitute hooked on drugs. She was handed to a stranger at 6 months. She was thrust into the foster care system at age 10 and took an office job at 14 to help support herself.

Now Morales, 23, and nine other former foster youths will receive what is probably the biggest break of their lives – a full scholarship to San Diego State University, courtesy of the university and San Francisco 49ers quarterback Alex Smith, a Helix High School graduate who was the NFL's top draft pick in 2005.

Smith and SDSU have created the most comprehensive scholarship package ever issued on campus, university officials say – up to five years of tuition, year-round housing, meals, mentors, books, health services, living expenses, counselors, career guidance and tutoring.

The SDSU Guardian Scholars Program is expected to expand each year until it reaches 50 students annually. It is modeled after a program begun in 1997 at Cal State Fullerton to help former foster youths not only pay for college but complete it.

There are about 80,000 children in foster care in California, from infants to teenagers. Half don't complete high school, according to the County Welfare Directors Association. Barely one in 10 of those who get a high school diploma goes on to college.

In their 18th year, foster children are considered emancipated. Each year, more than 4,000 suddenly find themselves on their own.

“A lot of foster kids dream about going to college,” said Smith, 23. “But it's impossible for someone to be 18 and turned loose with a couple of hundred dollars and an expectation for them to put food in their mouths, work full time and go to school without someone to lean on. Many of them don't have cars. It's ridiculous.”

Smith, a Heisman Trophy finalist and graduate of the University of Utah, said he wanted to take on this cause while his celebrity was at its peak. Last year, he established the Alex Smith Foundation to help foster teens in transition.

“What better time than now to do some good? I have the most leverage now to create some awareness,” he said.

Eye-opening experience
At 20, Smith had just been drafted by the 49ers when he met with the football team of San Pasqual Academy, a residential school for foster teens in North County that had recently played in the California Interscholastic Federation finals.

“It was pretty eye-opening,” Smith said. “I'm visiting many 17-and 18-year-olds who were going to end up on the streets, and a couple of years earlier I had everything. My parents moved me into the dorms. They got me a car. I realized that's why I had been so successful – because I had that support.”

Smith's mother, Pam, a deputy director at the county's Health and Human Services Agency, arranged the visit. His father, Doug Smith, is the principal of Helix High, a charter school where Alex took 64 units of Advanced Placement courses, enabling him to graduate from college with a bachelor's degree in economics in only two years.

When the 49ers drafted him in 2005, Smith signed a six-year, $49.5 million contract, with $24 million in guaranteed money.

The visit to San Pasqual Academy was the impetus for creating the Alex Smith Foundation. Smith's older sister, Abbey, a Chula Vista resident, is executive director. In the beginning, the foundation would buy foster children tickets to 49ers home games and arrange visits to the team's training camp.

Then Alex Smith's efforts as an advocate for foster youths turned to weightier matters. In April, he testified before a state Senate subcommittee regarding a bill to provide funds for foster children seeking a higher education.

Smith also turned his attention to San Diego County, where more than 5,000 foster youths live without their parents.

He approached SDSU President Stephen Weber about starting a Guardian Scholars Program. Weber embraced the idea.

“This was not a hard call,” Weber said. “The program actually responds to their needs . . . and I think the thing that's really remarkable about this is that Alex saw the need. It takes a certain awareness to see the plight of these kids and realize that simple solutions won't quite do it. I mean these folks are now homeless.”

The scholarships are worth about $10,000 per student annually, and the Alex Smith Foundation has committed $100,000 to cover the first recipients this year.

Cal State Fullerton's program cost $304,000 last year for 38 students.

The support services that the SDSU program will provide are in the planning stages. Pam Smith said the foundation will probably spend another $100,000 on those services. Seven additional foster youths, who were not awarded scholarships, will receive the extra support.

Wendy Craig, associate director of San Diego State's Educational Opportunity Programs, which helps first-generation and low-income students, said this is the most comprehensive intervention designed for foster youths at SDSU.

The first 10 recipients were chosen from more than 20 known former foster students who have been admitted to or are attending SDSU. They were picked, without having applied, based on their commitment to the college course work, their potential to serve as role models for future scholarship winners, and their need.

They met all academic standards for admittance to SDSU on their own.

Morales, who is a full-time student at Southwestern College, works 39 hours a week as a foster youth advocate for two nonprofit organizations and fills her spare time with volunteer work for organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Johnny Cauthron, 18, who recently graduated from San Pasqual Academy, is a scholarship recipient who will enter SDSU as a chemistry major.

Before being accepted at the academy, Cauthron had lived in group homes and with several foster families. He was abused as a baby and had been taken in by his aunt until her drug use made that impossible.

Cauthron said he's wanted to attend college since he was 12. His aunt's partner died of AIDS, and he would like to find a cure. But mostly, he wants to earn a living and provide financial help to his sister – a single mom without a high school diploma – while being able to take care of himself.

“In the foster system, a lot of kids end up dependent on the government, but I've always been dependent on myself,” Cauthron said.

Creating a community
The tuition and free housing will get the students through the door. But what will propel them to graduation, organizers say, is the creation of a foster youth community with trained professionals available to help when there are hurdles.

Cauthron likes that this scholarship program doesn't just offer money, but establishes a community at SDSU where he can find counseling from adults and camaraderie from peers with similar backgrounds.

In picking scholarship recipients, Craig explained, “We said, 'Who most needs a family?' because we're basically going to be their family now that they're in college.”

The program will be year-round, she said. “They have no place to live during summer, winter and spring breaks. These kids are out on the streets. Some kids say they live in cars.”

A residence hall will be designated for them, she said. An assistant director, in a newly created position, will link them to every service they need, from counseling to career planning. Support services will also be provided by the Consensus Organizing Center in SDSU's School of Social Work, along with high school outreach.

“When these kids get here, they're still in basic survival mode, as opposed to focusing on just being full-time college students,” Craig said. “The students have been in truly horrible situations their whole lives that they're trying to overcome. Some have been raped or living among drug addicts, domestic violence, the whole gamut.”

Path to college
When the first 10 students were told about their scholarships, they reacted with a combination of shock, elation and relief.

Sophia Herman, 21, had been accepted to SDSU but was unsure how she would pay for it.

Herman grew up in National City in more foster homes than she can recall. Her single mother has been in and out of jail her entire life.

“The hardest thing about the foster system was knowing that you don't belong to no one and dealing with that emotional pain,” Herman said. “There's nobody to give you a hug at the end of the day. Nobody to vent to. Nobody says you're their kid, unless it's because you're on their caseload.”

But Herman always envisioned attending college. The Sweetwater High graduate earned good marks in school.

“My grandmother used to tell me that college was the only way out of my situation,” she said. “She said you have to be self-sufficient and not lean on other people.”

Herman wasn't sure how to do that.

“At 18, we're supposed to be fully functioning adults who know how to cook, clean, manage our finances, manage our time, use a credit card wisely, purchase car insurance, and balance school and work,” she said. “It's scary. Even something as simple as paying your SDG&E bill can make you fall down because there's nobody to make sure you do it right. Parents do that.”

Herman attended Grossmont College full time while working 30 hours a week at Edgemoor Hospital, a long-term nursing facility in Santee. She wants to be a nurse.

Morales said at first she could barely digest what she'd be given.

“It was so shocking, I wondered if maybe they messed up on the name,” she said. “I thought, are you maybe looking for a Cindy Morales?”

It sunk in when Smith took the scholarship recipients bowling.

“He was the most humble, down-to-earth human being I have ever met in my life,” she said.

Morales introduced Smith at the Guardian Scholars kickoff dinner in June.

She said the scholarship has been the highlight of her life.

“With this scholarship, the only thing I want in my life, to finish school, is coming true,” she said. It's waiting for me, and all I have to do now is continue to be a full-time student.”