Press release from Ohio Family Care Association

Photograph of Pinkie Thomas

(Ohio Family Care Association, OH) – Pinkie Thomas, director of a statewide agency supporting foster, kinship, respite and adoptive parents, wants to increase the college attendance rate of young people in and from the Ohio foster care system.

National statistics show that, although 70% of 17-year-olds in foster care express a desire to attend college, only 54% graduate from high school and only 2% earn a college degree.

Pinkie Thomas’ desire to change those statistics led to her to bus a group of 16 teenagers in the custody of Franklin County Children Services on a series of college tours. Tours were staffed by members of the Ohio Family Care Association and financed through Franklin County Children Services.

The first trip in the series, on March 24, 2007, was to three museums in Michigan, including the Charles Wright Museum of African American History, Henry Ford Museum, and Black Holocaust Museum. This gave teenagers the opportunity to be encouraged by the persistence and inspired by the artistic and technological achievements of others.

The series of college tours took place on March 31, April 9, April 10 and April 13, with the teenagers being taken on a tour of two colleges per day. Destinations included Kentucky State, Central State, University of Toledo, Bowling Green University, Hocking College, Ohio University, Mount Vernon Nazarene and Kent State University.

The eight universities were helpful and accommodating. Tours were led either by students of the university or the college admissions counselor. Hocking College provided free lunch at a hotel that college students run as part of a Hospitality course. The admissions counselors at Ohio University and Kent State reminded the teenagers that they could do more to help their siblings with a college degree.

Schedule of college tours:
March 31, 2007 - Kentucky State and Central State
April 9, 2007 - University of Toledo and Bowling Green University
April 10, 2007 - Hocking College and Ohio University
April 13, 2007 - Mt. Vernon Nazarene and Kent State University

Press release submitted by:
Lisa Dickson, Co-Chair of Former Kids in Care