From DACA students to Rhodes Scholars to foster-care youth, a look at some unusual college-goers

“As the opioid crisis ravages communities across West Virginia, a college is recruiting some of its casualties — children who have been in foster care. Only about half of foster care children graduate from high school. Very few earn bachelor’s degrees (national figures are not available, but estimates range from 3 to 10 percent). The reasons are not mysterious — interrupted schooling creates academic gaps, while the trauma these children often experience produces social and emotional challenges. And if they do manage to scrape together money for college, where do they go during holiday breaks when the dorms close?”