UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. – Three years ago, longtime philanthropist Brook Lenfest was examining the educational outcomes of young people who emerge from the Philadelphia-area foster care system, and he didn’t like what he was seeing. In essence, they were being ushered onto a ladder to higher education that was missing most of its rungs. The financial support, advising services and mentoring relationships were all inadequate. The outcome of this situation was as predictable as it was alarming: of the 16,800 children in foster care in Pennsylvania, less than 3% could expect to earn a college degree.

Dismayed by the patchwork of resources and thin layers of support for these students, Lenfest swung into action. Under his leadership, the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation partnered with the Philadelphia Foundation in 2021 to commit up to $630,000 to Penn State as part of the Lenfest Immensitas Scholars Program, which was designed to provide scholarship support for youth from the Philadelphia region who are in or have aged out of foster care. Immensitas (pronounced immense-it-tas) is Latin for “boundless” and signifies the unlimited potential of every youth, as well as the life opportunities available to those with a college degree.

“The statistics I was seeing around homelessness, incarceration and unemployment for young people in Philadelphia aging out of the foster care system were just staggering, and I’d sit on boards of organizations where we would wring our hands about it, but no one was stepping forward to fix the broken system,” said Brook J. Lenfest. “To me, it was clear that a pathway to higher education, coupled with engaged mentorship, was really the launchpad to self-empowerment, so this program represents an evidence-driven program geared to help a group that has been chronically underserved and underfunded.”

Now, three years later, the impact of the program is being felt as its first graduate is poised to cross the stage at graduation. In May, Austin M. Lee will earn his bachelor's degree in psychology from the College of the Liberal Arts, but like so many young people who have moved through the foster care system, his journey to this milestone was fraught with challenges.

Persevering through systemic failures

Lee’s childhood and teens years, he said, were chaotic because of custodial insecurity. He passed through the foster care system three times, sometimes falling under the jurisdiction of Child Youth Services in Delaware County, Pennsylvania, or the Department of Human Services in Philadelphia, and occasionally returning to live with his father, mother or neighbors. At 18, said Lee, when he petitioned for a board extension to retain the network and benefits of the foster care system, his foster father nonetheless evicted him from the home without explanation.

Despite the instability of his youth, Lee was determined to pursue higher education, but his first attempt to earn a college degree became a textbook case of how the system first attracts, then fails, students from foster backgrounds. A private university in Connecticut persuaded him to enroll based on its robust criminal justice professional network and an ample financial aid package. Soon enough, however, Lee found himself struggling against the inertia of a system that tacitly required the support of parents. He applied for loan after loan to bridge the gap between his scholarship and tuition costs, but without a parent to cosign, banks and agencies denied his applications, he said. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to him, he was driving down his credit score with a flood of loan inquiries, further sabotaging his prospects of success. He then poured effort into working toward state residency, which turned out not to offer any significant cost reduction, he explained. Ultimately, he managed to attend for one semester before his financial circumstances forced him to withdraw.

Lee said his commitment to earning a degree was reignited by action from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, who led efforts to waive tuition at college and universities for people who had moved through the commonwealth’s foster care system. Lee seized the opportunity, first at Penn State Abington, then at University Park, where, he said, he expected once again to encounter well-meaning but ultimately unreliable staff support. Then he was connected with Cheri McConnell, coach of the Fostering Lions Program and program coordinator for the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network.

“I told Cheri outright I’d seen administrators pay lip service and make big promises of support and then ghost me or drop the ball,” Lee said. “But she went right to work for me. She connected me with scholarships, laid out the qualifications for a subsidized loan and explained how work-study and academic excellence actually open doors. And she promised me that I’d never have to worry about rent or going hungry if I could just clear those bars. That follow-through and consistency meant I could actually access all those resources that had otherwise been locked away, and that just made a transformative difference in getting me to graduation.”

McConnell said it is not unusual for students like Lee to be wary of administrators.

“Most people with Austin’s background will tell you they could fill an ocean with the promises they’ve heard made and broken, so I know I have to earn their trust by my actions and prove I can deliver,” McConnell said. “That’s why Lenfest Scholars Program has been so consequential. It gives students the financial freedom to focus on academic life and opens the full gamut of support services from the Fostering Lions Program. That kind of resource-intensive intervention is a game-changer.”

Lenfest Immensitas Scholars Program

Lee was among the first beneficiaries of the Lenfest Immensitas Scholars Program, a three-year pilot at Penn State that is part of a broader $1.8 million initiative of the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation and Philadelphia Foundation designed to increase college graduation among former foster youth, with support for up to 100 Philadelphians annually. In addition to Penn State, the initiative established similar scholarship support at Harcum College, West Chester University and the Pennsylvania College of Technology.

To bridge the gap between the Pennsylvania tuition waiver and the real cost of a degree, the Lenfest Immensitas Scholars Program ensures each participant receives a semester stipend along with money to cover books and room and board during the schoolyear and during breaks. In conjunction with this financial assistance, the program provides an extensive support system, including academic advising, financial and money management guidance and a designated liaison.

The Brook J. Lenfest Foundation previously partnered with Penn State in 2002 to create the Lenfest Scholars Program, and in 2014 it pledged $7 million to create the Brook J. Lenfest Foundation Trustee Scholarship. In 2018, it established an Open Doors Scholarship with a $1 million gift that was matched two-to-one by Penn State. All of these programs are helping students from the Philadelphia area with significant financial need to attend Penn State and succeed in their life pursuits.

Now, Lenfest said he is determined to optimize the effectiveness of the Immensitas program by listening to the students who have experienced setbacks and understanding the obstacles they face.

“Right now, we’re seeing some early signs of success, but we’ve also faced headwinds in struggling to find a full roster of applicants,” Lenfest said. “Part of the issue is privacy laws that make it difficult to let potential applicants know that these scholarships are even available. So we need to be more aggressive about getting the word out effectively. Also, some of these young people have been conditioned to believe that higher education is just out of reach for them. The reality is that education is the great equalizer in this country if students can just access it. No one’s prospects in life should be determined by their zip code or by the misfortune of not having parents in your life.”

Three additional Lenfest Immensitas Scholars are on track to graduate within the next two years from Penn State. As Lee prepares to graduate, he said, he is exploring whether professional experience as an emergency medical technician, state police trooper or member of the armed forces will provide him with best bridge to his ultimate goal of a career at the Federal Bureau of Investigations. In the meantime, however, he is continuing his work as a juvenile justice advocate in Philadelphia.

“I have to explain to people: It’s not our fault if our parents failed to take responsibility for us. We didn’t ask to have those parents. We didn’t ask to have that situation," said Lee. "But that is our situation, so all we’re asking for now is a shot at a decent education. So it’s really meaningful when someone comes forward with the resources to actually make that happen.”

Donors like Brook J. Lenfest advance the University’s historic land-grant mission to serve and lead. Through philanthropy, alumni and friends are helping students to join the Penn State family and prepare for lifelong success; driving research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future; and increasing the University’s impact for families, patients, and communities across the commonwealth and around the world. Learn more by visiting raise.psu.edu.