Two hundred people had gathered in the auditorium to hear her speak, but Tiffany Brooks, a 2008 graduate of San Francisco State University, only saw one of them, her foster mother Doris Peeler-Brown.

Standing to deliver the keynote address during a fundraiser for the SF State's Guardian Scholars, a program designed to assist emancipated foster care children access higher education, she honored the woman and the program responsible for her success.

“My mom stood by my side during the whole process,” said Brooks referring to her foster mom. “I love her.”

Brooks is the first graduate of SF State’s Guardian Scholars program, a program Brooks helped shape for future students. The Guardian Scholars Program provided Brooks, and other students who have aged out of the foster care system, with access to housing, food, work-study opportunities, scholarships and, most important, social and emotional support.

“Tiffany actually helped to shape the SF State Guardian Scholars program,” said Linda Chiu, a Guardian Scholar case manager. “She made valuable contributions to focus groups designed to tailor the program to SF State student needs.”

According to data from the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators, in any given year, there are approximately 800,000 youth in the foster care system. About 300,000 of these youth are between the ages of 18 and 24, the traditional college-going years.

Studies show that only 10 percent of all traditional college-age youth from foster care enroll in some form of postsecondary education, even though nearly 70 percent have aspirations to do so. Researchers assert that approximately 100,000 college-age foster care alumni are missing out on higher education opportunities. Brooks refused to be among them.

At the age of nine, Brooks was forced into the foster care system. Her mother had abandoned her three years earlier and Brooks’ cousin resigned her to social services.