Nonprofit stepping up to help those aging out of foster care
Pivotal has helped college student, 26, find stable housing and a guidance coach
When Jasmine Terranova became sick with the coronavirus recently, the 26-year- old couldn’t climb into a cozy bed to recuperate or count on loved ones to deliver soup to her front porch.
That’s because the Gavilan College student found herself sleeping alone at night in her 2002 Toyota Camry.
She struggled to breathe as she prayed that police wouldn’t boot her from a parking space near a gas station in Morgan Hill.
“I sometimes feel like I’m holding it together with chewing gum and old newspaper,” she said.
Enter Pivotal, a San Jose-based nonprofit that helps Silicon Valley’s foster youth succeed in high school, college and beyond. The organization, which provides coaching, scholarships and career readiness programs, had already been helping Terranova with school. But when she tested positive for COVID-19 and confided the story of her sleeping arrangements, Pivotal arranged for her to stay in a nearby hotel, giving her time not only to recover but to save up enough to put down a deposit on a rented room in downtown San Jose.
“They are so supportive,” she said. “It’s kind of like a family.”
In response to the pandemic, the nonprofit has launched an emergency assistance program to help young people pay for everything from rent and groceries to laptops.
“These students really are living on thin margins as it is, and the pandemic has made those margins even thinner,” said Christine Salinas, Pivotal’s grants manager.
The organization, which connects with many participants by working
with community colleges in Santa Clara County, is seeking $15,000 through Wish Book to help expand the program.
For many young people, turning 21 is a joyous occasion. But for foster youth, it’s the age at which the services and funding many rely on to stay afloat evaporate.
While college is a common goal, just a tiny fraction — around 3% — of foster youth in the country earn a bachelor’s degree. Half leave high school without a diploma. Many drop out because they need to work to support themselves.
The outcomes are significantly better for Pivotal participants — 86% graduate from high school, and 30% earn a bachelor’s degree.
But the coronavirus pandemic has thrown college plans for even the most
stable families into chaos.
Foster youth prepared to attend four-year colleges that were providing housing suddenly found campuses closed and living situations precarious. They lost access to campus computer labs with reliable WiFi. They lost part-time jobs. While their peers retreated to childhood bedrooms, they floundered.
“There’s no family to lean on,” Salinas said. “They system really has failed to take care of these children in a way that is equitable and fair.”
Terranova had been staying in a homeless shelter in downtown San Jose but had to leave. Pivotal helped her find a room in a former foster parent’s house — with a lock on the door and internet access. Things seemed to be looking up. But then the coronavirus struck and Terranova packed up her belongings and moved into her car — worried about infecting anyone else.
Terranova has never had the luxury of stability.
The East Bay native spent most of her childhood in a home where physical and emotional abuse were the norm. There were no happy family gatherings or sage words of wisdom like she saw on TV. New schools every year. Unspeakable cruelty from the people who were supposed to nurture and protect her.
Eventually — right as she hit those teen years that are angst-ridden at best — there was foster care.
“No one noticed that I wasn’t doing homework. Nobody said anything,” Terranova said of her earlier years. “It was hard to focus on class when I was wondering if (my mom) would be in a good or bad mood when she got home. I had bad anxiety about it.”
She knew about PG& E bills and angry landlords, but not about credit or healthy relationships.
“I was on my own a lot,” Terranova said. “I had to learn everything from scratch. I didn’t have anyone to show me how anything works.”
Yet today, Terranova is a 4.0 molecular biology whiz on her way to becoming a doctor, with big dreams to open her own space where foster youth, especially those in the LGBTQ community, can feel safe.
She’s done the hard work, at times in precarious circumstances that threatened to derail her progress. But some of her success is also rooted in Pivotal.
Diana Seoud is Terranova’s Pivotal coach — regularly checking in by text, phone and, now, video chats in place of meetings that used to take place at Starbucks before the pandemic. Sometimes the pair talk about long-term academic goals or tough courses, sometimes about relationships.
Seoud helps her with job searches and resume building, scholarship applications and the bureaucratic web that is financial aid. If she doesn’t know the answer, she connects Terranova with someone who does. She networks. It’s time-intensive, labor-intensive, exhausting, rewarding work.
“A lot of them are told their whole lives they’re never going to make it, never going to college,” said Seoud, who is employed by Pivotal but based at Gavilan, where she works with roughly two dozen foster youth. “We ensure that our students are supported.”
Pivotal also pushes students to live up to their potential in a way that many foster youth haven’t been pushed.
“She’s not afraid to call me out if I’m starting to fall behind,” Terranova said of her coach. “Sometimes it’s not OK, and I need to hear it. It’s nice for someone to pay so much attention.”
These days, when she’s not buried under a mountain of coursework, Terranova is checking out new Play Station games or hanging out at the beach with friends. She’s dreaming of transferring to Cal State Monterey Bay where it’s cool and calm.
“Yes they’re foster youth, but they’re just like every other student and they deserve what every other student receives, too,” Seoud said. “I think that Jasmine has so much potential and I’ve seen her at her best and at her worst, and I always tell her if she’s struggling: I know you can get to where you want to be.”