How One College is Creating the Conditions for Students from Foster Care to Succeed with Nailah McDowell and RaMaj Parker

Getting into college and succeeding in college are two very different things.

Young people with foster care experience have gained greater access to college through tuition assistance, scholarships, and enrollment support. But if access alone were enough, completion rates would look very different.

In this episode of Community In-Site, host Valerie Frost talks with Livingstone College Vice President Nailah McDowell and student RaMaj Parker about what changes when an institution asks a different question: not simply whether students are ready for college, but whether the college is ready for its students.

Livingstone spent nearly a year preparing before welcoming its cohort, looking beyond tuition and academics to belonging, relationships, trust, and the kinds of support that rarely appear on a financial-aid form. Nailah shares what it takes to design that kind of institutional response, while RaMaj offers his own perspective on what support, trust, and belonging look like in practice.

Together, Valerie, RaMaj, and Nailah explore whether real opportunity requires more than opening the door, and what it would look like for institutions to take responsibility for creating the conditions students need to stay, grow, and succeed.