Author

Bre McKamie

Date Approved

2009

Degree Type

Open Access Senior Honors Thesis

Department or School

English Language and Literature

Abstract

Research shows that foster care youth have “poorer mental and physical health, are more likely to be involved with the legal system, and are at a higher risk of being engaged in substance abuse” than children who are not in the foster care system.1 This paper will address how mentoring programs such as Eastern Michigan University’s Write-Link Community Connections and Student-to-Student Higher Learning Initiative (SSHLI) can increase the success rate of foster care adolescents once they age out of the system by having a significant impact on their future careers, while also determining what factors make these programs successful. Based on the results, this paper will also recommend the need for a third program dubbed Turning Point, which is proposed to start through EMU’s Public Relations Student Society of America Chapter (PRSSA). Turning Point encompasses certain aspects of both Write-Link and SSHLI that will further inspire former foster care youth to pursue higher education.

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