When he was a teenager, Donovan Niizhogaabo Holmes shuffled through multiple foster care placements and dropped out of high school. Today, he is working toward degrees in urban studies and sociology from Augsburg University — an achievement that would not have been possible, he said, if not for a state program that covers the cost of attendance for foster youth.
“It has definitely changed my life,” Holmes said.
Holmes is one of 1,522 Minnesota foster youth who have relied on Fostering Independence Grants while pursuing college and associate’s degrees. Established through the state’s Fostering Higher Education Grants Act in 2021, the grant first became available during the 2022-23 academic year. It is intended to help ease the heavy financial burden of college for foster youth, who often lack the support of parents to pay for school.
Today, it looks like those hopes are paying off: Data shows that some of the program’s earliest recipients have graduated from their post-secondary institutions at higher rates than their peers nationally.
According to the Minnesota Office of Higher Education, 22% of 526 students who enrolled in the program in its first year have graduated, and a majority of the rest remain enrolled in school. In contrast, only 8% to 12% of foster youth nationally earn a post-secondary degree by their mid-to-late 20s, according to a review led by a University of Connecticut associate professor last year.
Elena Leomi, a director at the nonprofit Foster Advocates, said that the number of recipients who have graduated so far is a “promising” start. She expects that number to grow.
“It’s an amazing rate,” Leomi said, whose St. Paul-based organization lobbied for the creation of the grant program.
“It shows me what’s out there — what I can do, instead of what I can’t.”
— KP Phelps, Fostering Independence Grant recipient
Fostering Independence Grants are part of a quilt of state and federal support available to foster youth who want to pursue higher education in Minnesota. The state-funded program serves one of the smallest student populations in the state, yet the grants are among the most comprehensive. Students can use funds for anything they need during their college experience — tuition, books, rent, food, transportation and other expenses.
The program has had such high demand that in 2024, funding nearly ran out and the state scrambled to infuse it with $5 million to keep it afloat. Since its inception, the program’s budget has grown from $4.2 million to $7.6 million.
The grant is open to students under age 27 who were in foster care at or after age 13, and is automatically awarded to those who indicate they were in foster care on their Free Application for Federal Student Aid form. Because it is intended to fill gaps in financial aid, the grant amount is calculated after other awards have been finalized.
Most recipients have been Black, Latino, multiracial, and Indigenous — a sign that the assistance is reaching college students who come from communities disproportionately represented in foster care, Leomi said.
Holmes, a descendant of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe and Spirit Lake Band of Sioux, was among the first students to receive the grants in 2022. He entered the child welfare system at 2 years old after circumstances at home led social workers to decide that he should live with his grandparents.
But life grew more unstable during high school. Before aging out of the child welfare system, Holmes, who identifies as Two Spirit — a term used by some Indigenous communities to describe various sexual or gender expressions — went through a series of foster care placements. He was also homeless at times.
Holmes later passed his GED test, a high school equivalency exam. He applied to college after learning it would be free because of financial aid set aside for foster youth, including the Fostering Independence Grant.
As he waited for the funds to arrive in his bank account, Holmes had to rely on a local food pantry for groceries and emergency funds from an Augsburg University support program to pay utilities. Only able to pay a portion of his rent, he had to ask his landlord for patience.
When the award did come in, Holmes put some of the roughly $9,000 he received toward back rent, and repaid loans from friends and family. Looking at his bank account and knowing he could cover his expenses was a new experience.
“That was wild,” said Holmes, who has previously written for The Imprint’s partner publication, Youth Voices Rising.
Adam Johnson, who oversees the program for the state, said that awareness about the grant is growing, and it seems to be inspiring more foster youth students to pursue four-year college degrees. More than 65% of grant recipients enrolled in Minnesota state colleges during the 2022-23 school year, and roughly 17% went to Minnesota state universities.
“The assumption was before that these students may have just been going to community college because it was the most affordable,” Johnson said.
Student KP Phelps, 25, said health issues derailed her previous attempts to attend college. The Fostering Independence Grant she received during the 2025-26 academic year gave her the support she needed to try again, she said.
Because of the grant, she can afford to live on campus. She doesn’t worry anymore about food because she can pay for a meal plan. The financial security allows her to focus on school and enjoy her classes at the University of St. Thomas.
She never experienced that sense of stability while growing up. As she moved through foster homes and residential facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, she lost valuable traction in school and her options seemed to narrow. Fostering Independence Grants offer foster youth hope and a chance to control their own narrative as they transition into adulthood, she said.
“It shows me what’s out there — what I can do, instead of what I can’t,’’ Phelps said. “Being in foster care, you have a lot of restrictions. And you also have a lot of people making decisions for you. It kind of put that power in my hands.”