ATLANTA — According to new research, stable housing and money for books are among the top concerns for college students, especially in Georgia. A college education is estimated to add $1 million to a person’s lifetime earning potential, but the path to achieving one is fraught with difficulties for some students.
According to a new study from the University of Georgia, that journey is even more difficult for students who have been in foster care or have experienced homelessness.
David Meyers, a co-author of the study, said that getting into universities in the first place can be difficult for students who have had unstable home lives. Getting into college is just the beginning of a new set of challenges for those who overcome the odds. The added stressors of figuring out how to pay for courses, books, and housing once they arrive — something many of their classmates do not have to consider — can take a considerable toll.
Published in the Journal of Adolescent Research, the study conducted by researchers focuses on the experiences of 27 college students, all attending four-year institutions, who had been in foster care, experienced homelessness, or both. The researchers conducted three in-depth interviews with each participant over one academic year, and several clear patterns emerged.
All of these students had to “survive” on their own. During high school, they were frequently without parental guidance or support, and they were entirely on their own in college. Many people took jobs to support their academic endeavors.
Institutions such as UGA are taking steps to address this issue, with programs that provide emotional support while connecting students to resources they may not know otherwise.
Embark@UGA, for instance, is the university-based component of Embark Georgia, a project led by Meyers and Lori Tiller, a colleague at the Fanning Institute. The program is a statewide network connecting the University System of Georgia and the Technical College System of Georgia to the Division of Family and Children Services, the Georgia Department of Education, and a variety of nonprofit and community organizations that may help students with their needs.
Through the program, each USG university, technical college campus, and every high school in Georgia has a point to help provide and identify resources to homeless and former foster students who need help.
Furthermore, scholarships like Let All the Big Dawgs Eat, providing a food stipend for students, have also aided in narrowing the gap, and UGA has also made a point to start using free online textbooks in many courses.