A new $50,000 gift and a $100,000 estate commitment from Penn State alumni and longtime donors and volunteers Alan Bedrick, MD (Science, 1974; Medicine, 1978) and Sally (Pollock) Bedrick (Education, 1975) were inspired by Sally’s simple question: “What does Penn State do for students who have been through the foster care system?”
For the past 14 years, Sally has volunteered as a court-appointed special advocate (CASA) in Tucson, Arizona, where the Bedricks now live. As a CASA, Sally has helped teenage girls navigate their foster care journey, coordinating with social services and the legal system and providing emotional support. She learned firsthand through this meaningful work that few students with prior experiences in foster care earn college degrees. Nationally, only 50% of children in foster care finish high school by age 18. Only 20% pursue higher education, and of those who do, fewer than 10% graduate from a four-year college.
Penn State’s Fostering Lions program, which operates through the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, was founded in 2018 as the first program of its kind in Pennsylvania. Fostering Lions’ mission is to improve postsecondary education outcomes for students entering Penn State from the foster care system and for homeless youth involved with Children and Youth Services. It provides ongoing support, connecting these students to critical University services and developing skills for post-graduation success. For many participants in the program, Fostering Lions helps them to not only succeed academically but also thrive as a whole person, thanks to nurturing staff, supportive peers and community friends.
Students coming out of foster care often lack the support networks that many traditional students take for granted. While other students may turn to their parents for spending money, supplies or advice, former foster youth often have to fend for themselves. They may have no home to return to during school breaks. They may have no one who can cosign an apartment lease. They may even lack essential documents such as a Social Security card, birth certificate or driver’s license — barriers that can make employment and financial stability difficult. They also lack the family financial support that is essential to covering the costs of higher education.
“Foster youth may lack social and life skills and have a higher chance of past abuse or neglect, which can increase feelings of isolation. They can struggle to afford their education, even with various scholarships, grants and loans. All of the challenges faced by foster youth greatly increase their likelihood of dropping out of college,” said Cheri L. (McConnell) Hillard, coach for the Fostering Lions Program and education coordinator for the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network, part of the Social Science Research Institute.
The Alan and Sally Bedrick Program Support Endowment for Fostering Lions, established in 2024, will strengthen the program’s ability to mitigate these challenges and enhance its key offerings for students: financial support; academic and career planning; social/emotional support; and logistical assistance, such as housing, transportation, health care, child-care subsidies and legal services.
“The Bedricks’ generous support will help us cover programmatic expenses as well as directly assist more students with general needs such as books, computers, emergency transportation and food, allowing them to focus on going to classes, getting good grades and graduating,” Hillard said.
“This is a generous gift that will allow the Fostering Lions Program to extend its support for youth involved in the program — support that can make a difference in the lives of young people,” said Christian Connell, professor of human development and family studies and director of the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network.
As of fall 2024, 69 students are participating in the program, and 31 students involved with Fostering Lions have successfully completed their degrees at Penn State. The Bedricks hope that their support will make it possible for more students to earn their Penn State degrees.
“Higher education has been the key to professional opportunity for our family, and Sally and I are grateful that we can give back so that others — including undergraduate students who have been through foster care and medical students seeking to make a difference in health care — are not limited by financial challenges,” Alan said.
“It’s been deeply rewarding to meet some of the students in the Fostering Lions program over the past few months,” Sally said. “We are inspired by their resilience and determination to succeed.”
The Bedricks are Penn State Alumni Association life members, and from 1996 to 2008, Alan served on the College of Medicine Alumni Society Board of Directors, including a term as president. He also has served on the Penn State Alumni Association’s Alumni Council, with his first term beginning in 2006. The council named Alan its Volunteer of the Year in 2007, and he received the Cheston M. Berlin Service Award for outstanding service to the College of Medicine Alumni Society in 2009. He also has been honored with the Alumni Fellow Award (1993) and the Distinguished Alumni Award (2013).
In 2013, the Bedricks helped establish the Alumni Fellow Student Scholarship in the College of Medicine, also funded with gifts from other past recipients of the award. Previously, the couple created the Bedrick Family Medical Student Research Program Award. In addition to their gift to the Fostering Lions program last year, the Bedricks established the Beverly and Melvin Pollock Endowment for Ophthalmology Education at Penn State College of Medicine, named in honor of Sally’s parents.
Learn more about Penn State’s Fostering Lions program.
Donors like the Bedricks 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. Their contributions drive research, outreach and economic development that grow our shared strength and readiness for the future, while increasing the University’s impact for families, patients and communities across the Commonwealth and around the world. Learn more at raise.psu.edu.