Foster Youth from Valley High School Honored in Special Ceremony

The hard work of Valley foster students is paying off.

The Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation teamed up with the #LoveUp Foundation this weekend to celebrate the academic achievement of students enrolled in the foundation’s programs.

It was a big moment for 18-year-old Abram Hubbard, as a packed room gave him a round of applause at a graduation ceremony at Dave & Busters in Tempe on Saturday.

“I’m celebrating that I graduated in May,” he said. “It was rough, because I’m a bit of a procrastinator… but I thrive under pressure.”

While growing up, Hubbard went into the foster care system, but now he’s living independently.

“I’ve had all this support to help me along the way, whether it be my EFC or Keys to Success, and I also have YEC too, which is youth advocates, so they help too,” said Hubbard. “They helped me get on my grind, keep me motivated, keep me focused.”

Hubbard is one of dozens of high school and college-aged foster youth enrolled in Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation’s Keys to Success and post-secondary education programs, who are being celebrated for their academic achievements.

“The Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation is dedicated to doing very a simple, but powerful thing… to changing the story of kids in foster care and we do it through a number of ways,” said Luis De La Cruz, the president and CEO, who also grew up in the foster care system.

“I worked and I tried, and people rallied around me,” he said. “So, it’s truly that saying that it takes a village. It really did take a village.”

The foundation’s programs are enabling that village to extend even further.

The #LoveUp Foundation partnered with the foundation to make the graduation ceremony so special.

“We have about 60 to 70 kids, and they’ve opted into this program which is so awesome,” said Blake Van Es of the #LoveUp Foundation, that partnered with the foundation to make the graduation ceremony so special.

“They want to do better... they want to be better than their circumstances and so that’s what’s so beautiful about today,” she said.

“It’s a wonderful program and #LoveUp is proud to sponsor it,” said Johnjay Van Es of the #LoveUp Foundation. “…every kid gets a backpack with some life supplies to go on in the world and succeed.”

Olympic gold medalist Dan O'Brien shared his story and passed around one of his gold medals, telling the crowd he was adopted and grew up with an incredible family.

“I’m certainly familiar with the adoption and the foster system,” he said. “I had a great experience and one of the things I want to tell these young kids is your family is not always the one that you’re born into, it’s the one that you choose… the one that chooses you, and I feel super grateful that I was chosen into a really great family.”

O’Brien says he couldn’t have reached the level he has in the sports world without help along the way.

“The message is you can do anything if you never give up and if you know exactly what it is that you’re trying to accomplish,” he said.

Just like Hubbard who is focused on the positives.

“There’s so much help and support and financial aid you can get, just from being in the system,” he said.

And the graduation ceremony is proof of that.

For more information on Athe foundations full resource database for foster parents and guardians, youth workforce development programming and financial assistance and scholarships for foster youth, just head to affcf.org .