In foster care you hear so many negatives about children that struggle with life long issues. Children get lost in the system, and on, and on. It is easy to get caught in all the pain and heartache that comes with foster care. There are successful foster children and others that have learned to manage their pain, grief, and struggles in life they have faced.

A former foster child is working towards making foster care better for other children. Lily did have her fair share of struggles in foster care but she chose to work hard and overcome them. She was like many other foster teen and dealt with multiple placements. She even overcame a horrible foster parent that would have her make an appointment to go to the bathroom.

At the age of 14 years old Lily persuaded the people involved with her care to let her take care of herself. I find this sad and heartbreaking. A child at that young age losing her childhood and entering the huge responsibility of adulthood is a lot for a teen girl to deal with. Some foster children do chose to go down this road.


In the fifth grade Lily was failing and missing a lot of school then she decided she wanted a better life. She worked hard at school and ended up graduating with a straight A average. She received scholarship offers from Harvard, Princeton, Yale and other top colleges in the country. She decided to attend Yale and this year she has finished her sophomore year there.

She has taken a year off from college to set up a pilot program and write a handbook that will help teach children in foster care how to apply to college. She will also be returning to her high school to work with disadvantaged students.

Lily’s program for foster children is called Children in Placement – City Wide Youth Coalition if you would like to support her program please check the web-site.

More reading:

How to Help Foster Children

Is Parenting a Right or a Privilege?