NextUp Alumni Erasing Stereotypes for Foster Youth

By Luciana Chavez Special to Merced College

Many foster youth grow up feeling more like a number than a human being:

• The total number of foster youth in the U.S. is over 368,000.
• Social security numbers are used to identify cases to the state.
• The college graduation rate for foster youth is 23 percentage points lower than non-foster students.

Merced College alumni, however, are destroying the old stereotypes built into those numbers. They’ve transformed their futures in part due to support from the college’s NextUp Program, which provides assistance for needs like rent, gas and food, as well as academic and emotional stability, to former foster youth.

Trust

We start with Kiah Brock, because before she took over as Merced College’s NextUp Student Support Coordinator in 2023, she was a NextUp participant herself and a student worker.

Before she was a NextUp participant, Brock was in foster care, questioning her future. At Merced College, the NextUp center became her home base.

“I loved learning the sociology that NextUp uses to reach students,” Brock said. “They were concerned about figuring out me, the person.”

She earned a BA in Sociology from Chico State and will soon complete a master’s degree in Equity and Social Justice in Education from San Francisco State. She’s worked at Merced College throughout.

“The other day one of our foster youth told me, ‘You’re the only foster kid I’ve ever met that will have a master’s degree,’” Brock said. “I feel like foster youth never get publicity for the positive things they do after they grow up. They do make an impact on the world and a difference for others.”

Brock proudly shared that NextUp had a great year in 2024-25. They’re currently serving 139 Merced College students, up from about 80 two years ago.

It’s a far cry from her hesitant beginnings with the program as a student.

“When I enrolled years ago and Dondi Lawrence reached out to me to join NextUp, I wasn’t gonna drive from Chowchilla to Merced just for a $25 gas card,” Brock said. “I didn’t understand what they were trying to do. I kept wondering, ‘What’s the catch?’

“Building a rapport is key,” Brock added. “Dondi built my trust in her. Foster youth mostly see fake support. You have to build a strong bond, a real one, with us. I asked one of our students recently, ‘What can I do to support your vision?’ They replied that no one had ever asked them that before. That’s how Dondi spoke to me. Now it’s a privilege to elevate this program on the foundation Dondi built.”

Confidence

Gloria Martinez, a criminal justice student at Stanislaus State, has been working as an office assistant with the Merced County Probation Department for a year.

It’s a career track the former Merced College business student and NextUp participant had avoided, because she figured she was too small for law enforcement at 5-foot-1 and 125 pounds.

Her ambition changed two years ago when her childhood best friend died.

“I just knew I could be gone at any moment, so I better do something I am passionate about,” she said.

Martinez assists the county’s Breaking Barriers program in Los Banos, which works with probation clients and their families.

“There are some similarities between probation and NextUp, because people on probation often started as foster youth,” said Martinez, 23. “Asking questions, connecting people to help and tracking progress in NextUp prepared me for this work.”

Like her current clients, Martinez once felt lost having to make decisions when she first enrolled in college.

“I mentioned that to my life coach, and she emailed Dondi Lawrence,” Martinez said. “Within two hours, Dondi had called to get me enrolled in NextUp.”

A month later, Martinez took a job as a NextUp student worker. Soon after that, Lawrence encouraged Martinez to enter the college’s Made in Merced competition in 2022. Though Martinez loudly wondered why she signed up for something she “couldn’t win,” she won an innovation award for creating a digital student planner.

“Dondi believed in me, my foster parents believe in me, and now I believe in myself,” Martinez said.

So much so that she is also starting a popup bookstore—The Bookworm’s Nook—that will build on her existing book club called the Bookworm Brigade.

Like many former foster youth, Martinez has built up significant resilience and toughness that now serve her well.

“One of my coworkers asked me the other day, after an incident at work, how I was able to recognize when someone was under the influence,” Martinez said. “I told her, ‘Because my parents are addicts.’

“I’m blunt. I don’t apologize for it. I feel like the tough days happened to bring me where I am now. Experiences make you. They don’t have to break you.”

Taking Risks

Jesus Chavez is living a dream while studying psychology at Fresno State. He’s working toward another dream, to become a social worker for foster youth who suffered the same trauma he did.

“I don’t want any of them to feel alone or scared like I did,” he said.

Chavez was 7 years old when his parents were deported to Mexico and his life imploded. Though he found some stability when his aunt gained custody a year later, Chavez was terrified again when he graduated from high school in 2021. Others celebrated, while he worried what to do after he aged out of foster care.

His parents, still in Mexico, told him to continue his education. Chavez said, “No way.” But everything shifted when his social worker connected him to NextUp at Merced College.

Brock explained what the program could do for him, and Chavez immediately warmed to supporters who showed up for him and listened to him.

“It makes a difference for someone like me,” Chavez said. “If it hadn’t been for NextUp and Kiah, I would have felt useless and would not have come to school. But they had an ear for me right away.”

Chavez earned associate and transfer degrees in Psychology and Social and Behavioral Sciences in 2023, while helping others as a NextUp student worker. For the past six months, he has been working with young people at Merced County’s Independent Living Program.

Now he’s 22 and weeks away from being celebrated at his Fresno State graduation. How does he feel?

“Very successful,” Chavez said. “I didn’t think I could make it this far. It feels incredible. I feel accomplished. I’m proud of myself. Not many of us in the system make it this far.

“But I had to learn how to take risks, to continue even when I doubted myself. I learned you have to seek help. It won’t come to you. Now I don’t want to repeat any past mistakes. I’m preparing for the best future.”

Safe Space

Zineb Fisher is in her first year as an Animal Science major at UC Davis. She fell in love with working with animals while getting tons of hands-on experience with livestock at Merced College.

“By my second semester, I was vaccinating baby calves,” Fisher said. “Whatever it was, I volunteered for it.”

The Los Angeles native had the emotional and educational freedom to explore animal science thanks in part to NextUp.

“It saved me,” Fisher said. “Kiah was the most helpful person to me at the college. She made sure I got every opportunity I could from the program. She’s literally the reason why I applied to UC Davis.

“I kept thinking I’d never get in. I hadn’t finished all of my science prerequisites. But all of my hands-on experience at Merced College helped me get in. I owe it to NextUp.”

Fisher now also participates in the UC program for foster youth called Guardian Scholars.

“I can’t imagine not having help with move-in and living expenses,” she said. “I wouldn’t have anything right now. I don’t have a great relationship with my parents. NextUp taught me how to look for opportunities and take what I deserve. I’m immensely grateful.

“I want other foster youth to know that if they just dedicate themselves to the program for a year and take advantage of every service they can, it will work for them, too. Some people get food or gas cards and don’t ask for other things. They could get so much more help. If you just talk to someone and get the ball rolling, the ball won’t stop rolling.”