TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Joyce Cross and Bria Sherrod know what it's like to stumble in life, to fall hard without having a loving mother or father by their side to pick them up, soothe their hurt, and send them on their way.

Despite the hard lessons they've learned as wards of Kern County's foster care system -- and despite the statistics that say their success is a 100-to-1 long shot -- the Bakersfield teens this week had the courage to embark on a new journey as university students at Cal State Bakersfield.

"I'm scared," Cross said Friday as she carried a large stuffed Pooh Bear up a flight of stairs to the tiny, spartan dorm she will share with another student.

"I'm happy, but nervous," she added. "I just don't want to let anybody down."

Moving into a college dorm for the first time is a big transition for any 18-year-old. But the process took on additional meaning as Cross, with the help of foster system employees, moved out of her foster care group home to begin her freshmen year on an academic scholarship.

Nobody told her it's going to be easy.

"Seventy percent of foster youth say they want to go to college, but less than 1 percent ever graduate from a four-year institution," said Carrie Bloxom, coordinator for foster youth services at the Dream Center, a collaborative mentoring, training and support project operated by the Kern County Network for Children.

Chaos at home. Separation from families. Frequent moves and school changes. These factors and others combine to make the road a rough one for foster kids.

Sherrod, a graduate of Frontier High, said problems at home threw her life into chaos.

"There was a lot of verbal, physical and emotional abuse at home," she said. "I began acting out."

When she landed in Juvenile Hall in her mid-teens, she had the chance to talk to a social worker. In the end, she made the heart-wrenching choice to enter the foster care system.

"I missed almost half of my junior year," Sherrod said. "I missed out on so many things."

Beginning a college career without a traditional family to fall back on will not be easy for either teen. But there have been many who have helped them along the way.

Cross received academic help and mentoring from older foster youth, and she will soon be paying it forward as she begins her first campus job as a tutor to high school-age foster kids involved in Project Dream.

Making the transition from foster care to independent living has always been the crux, the moment when things could easily fall apart for foster kids. Without the support of a family, many do not fare well as young adults, with higher than average rates of homelessness, unemployment and involvement in the criminal justice system.

For Sherrod, being "emancipated" from the foster system after high school graduation left her feeling like she'd been set adrift.

"It's like you're thrown out there," she said.

Through a federally funded Independent Living Program, the Kern County Department of Human Services has been able to assist eligible teens in achieving self-sufficiency prior to "aging out" of the system. But the program is limited.

Foster care advocates hope that California State Assembly Bill 12, now on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's desk, will significantly reform California's foster care system by expanding support for foster youth to age 21, an approach that supporters say will also leverage substantial new federal funds.

The governor has until the end of September to sign or veto the bill.

For Cross and Sherrod, the road ahead is about making new friends, broadening their perspectives through higher education and finding themselves in the process.

"I was taken away from my mom when I was little," Cross said.

Through the years she was shuttled through more than a dozen foster homes. Stability was a foreign concept until she reached the Helping Hands Group Home in Rosedale, where she gained confidence and motivation. Where people believed in her.

"Now I'm going to college," she said, as if she couldn't quite believe it herself. "It's been a hard road, but I made it."