“When I was a kid, I never saw a lot of hope in my life… I never thought I would be here standing at Fresno State.”

Hope after foster care can feel impossible to imagine when you are living through uncertainty, loss, and disappointment. For Michel, that hope did not come easily.

In May 2026, Michel graduated from Fresno State with a bachelor’s degree in criminology and corrections. It is a milestone she is proud of, but it is also one she once believed would never happen.

Hope After Foster Care Felt Impossible

“When I was a kid, I never saw a lot of hope in my life,” Michel shared. “So I never thought I could even get to this point.”

Growing up in foster care, Michel often felt like she was left to navigate life on her own. While there were people who supported her at different points along the way, consistent guidance was hard to find. Without someone helping her see what was possible, college and a meaningful career felt distant. The future wasn’t something she could picture. It was something she feared.

“I never thought I would be here standing at Fresno State, attending Fresno State,” she said.

Michel struggled to imagine a future beyond foster care. Without role models and encouragement of what she could achieve, college felt out of reach. Let alone the career she wanted. There was fear in the unknown about her future.

“Growing up, life seemed like it just didn’t get better,” she said. “I always thought that the people that were supposed to care for me didn’t, so I thought, why is anyone gonna care? So to me, I felt really hopeless. I felt like I’m not gonna get far.”

Finding a Path to Fresno State

Michel is proud of how far she has come and the challenges she has overcome. Determined to build a different future for herself, she completed two years of community college before transferring to Fresno State. Choosing to pursue higher education, despite never imagining it was possible, reflects the determination that carried her through each step of the journey. Today, she is a college graduate with plans to dedicate her career to helping young people facing difficult circumstances.

“Here at Fresno State, I’m currently studying criminology corrections, specifically with juveniles,” she explained. “I wanna help at-risk youth who think they don’t have a chance in life.”

Michel’s motivation comes from personal experience sharing, “For me, I never really had the guidance,” Michel said. “A lot of it, I had to figure out on my own.”

Even so, she was not completely alone. Along the way, teachers, counselors, therapists, and mentors encouraged her when she needed it most.

“Those bits of pieces [from] teachers and counselors helping me really got me here,” she said.

Their encouragement, combined with Michel’s determination to keep moving forward, helped her begin to believe her future could look different. Today, she hopes to offer that same encouragement to young people who need someone to believe in them.

The Power of Being Supported

While pursuing her degree, Michel joined the team at Good Dirt Collective. At Good Dirt Collective, the mission is rooted in the belief that every young woman deserves people who will continue to show up for her. Michel’s journey from aging out of foster care to graduating from Fresno State is a powerful example of what can happen when support, opportunity, and hope come together.

She needed a job that could work around classes, assignments, and the demands of everyday life and finding one that fit her needs was not easy.

“It was really hard,” she said. “So I did a lot of interviews. I applied for a lot of jobs.”

Application after application led nowhere, calls went unanswered, opportunities disappeared. The repeated rejection was discouraging. But then Good Dirt offered her a chance.

“I went in, I had an interview and it was like an immediate like, yes, like you’re hired,” Michel recalled.

“It felt like, oh, finally somebody values [me]. I felt valued because I felt helpless trying to look for a job beforehand.”

The job gave Michel the flexibility to finish school and the support she needed to keep moving forward.

“When it comes to hope and Good Dirt, they have,” Michel said. “Sometimes when I feel like I don’t have hope for certain situations, I can go talk to Lizzie or Timery.”

She explained that those conversations often helped her see situations differently.

“They truly, they have inspired hope a lot.”

Graduating With a New Vision for the Future

“[Communication, professionalism, and work ethic] are  skills [I’ve gained at Good Dirt Collective] and  I am happy to be able to apply them in my future career.”

As graduation approached, excitement began to replace uncertainty.

“I’m truly excited for graduation,” Michel shared before crossing the stage. “I’m excited to just get that degree, my bachelor’s. I can’t wait.”

That moment has now arrived. Michel is officially a Fresno State graduate.

Michel’s degree is evidence that foster care did not have to define her future.

“I never thought I would even go to college,” she said. “I genuinely thought my life was not gonna progress to this point.”

Today, her story serves as a reminder that hope can grow in places where it once seemed impossible. When asked what she would tell a young person in foster care who feels discouraged, her answer was simple.

“If you are struggling and it seems like there is no hope and there’s no way out, just know that it does get better.”

She continued, “There is hope. There is people that will help you.”

Those words carry weight because Michel has lived them. She knows what it feels like to be overlooked. Near the end of her interview, she reflected on an experience many foster youth understand.

“Sometimes, especially in foster care, like you get forgotten about because you’re the good kid,” she said. “So they don’t need, you don’t need any help, but you still need help.”

It is a powerful reminder that every young person deserves support, encouragement, and people who believe in them. Michel’s story is not only about graduating from college. It is about what can happen when someone refuses to give up and when caring adults choose to stay present along the way. As she begins the next chapter of her life, her goal is clear. She wants to help young people discover the same truth she has learned herself. The future may not look the way they expect, but it is still worth believing in.

“With the right resources and the right rehabilitation, [anyone]  can better their lives for themselves, for the people around them. [They] can still make it in life.”