Twenty-one foster youth were feted during a unique graduation ceremony at Woodland Community College for beating the odds and obtaining their high school and college degrees.
Cherie Schroeder, who is the director of the Foster & Kinship Care Education, Independent Living & AmeriCorps Programs at the college reported that the June 21 event "was our best, over the top wonderful celebration. We had over 34 individual nonprofit groups, and service organizations, make donations, from gift cards, cash, small appliances, homewares, quilts, luggage, and graduation salutations."
During the evening, graduates were given a new Dell Laptop purchased with Yocha Dehe Wintun Community Funds.
The keynote speaker, Dr. Joshua Moon Johnson, was inspiring, at one point asking each youth to take out their phones, to think of an adult who has positively affected their lives and send them a "thank you text."
"I received several comments about how much our support over the past two years meant to graduates," Schroeder reported. "Many of the messages were to the effect of 'Your kindness and dedication have truly made a difference in my life.'"
Each graduate was given a $500 check from the WCC Foster Care Fund Account (monies from community donations), Child Welfare $500 to Yolo County dependents, another $100 from Yolo Children's Fund, $50 from Make it Happen, $50 from the Yolo County Office of Education, $50 from Woodland Kiwanis, and as much as $200 of community given gift cards, along with a duffle bag filled with life essentials such as a sleeping bag, tools, flashlight, and laundry essentials from the Woodland Sunrise Rotary Club, the book "Yay, You" signed by Yolo County's Dependency judges.
Those accepted into a four-year university were also awarded another $500, Make it Happen gave a $500 award, plus each graduate was given gift bags, a framed graduation photo, and "a bounty of household supplies."
Graduate Holly Jellison, meanwhile, received a $5,000 Davis Odd Fellows Charities Scholarship, that can be renewed for each of the next four years while she is attending Cal Poly Humbolt.
"These students are resilient and graduating from high school is a big first step to success and having wider doors to their future. I am so proud of each one of them," Schroeder stated.
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