Student Support

Fostering Bright Futures

Fostering Bright Futures (FBF) is a student success program that helps create a comprehensive support structure to assist youth in our community in making the transition from foster care to independent young adulthood.

The program seeks to identify and support young adults who have been served in the North Carolina foster care system and provide resources to eliminate barriers that would typically derail from them from meeting educational and life goals.

FBF and the Wake Tech Foundation are committed to the success of our students by doing the following:

  • Mentoring and supporting program participants in completing a degree, diploma or certificate at Wake Tech
  • Increasing the number of former foster youth transferring to bachelor's degree programs

  • Decreasing the number of high school dropouts among foster youth by providing a pathway to higher education
  • Helping program participants develop life skills and financial independence
Support Fostering Bright Futures
Contact Fostering Bright Futures

Current and prospective Wake Tech students can reach out to FBF staff about joining the program. An individual must meet the following requirements to be eligible:

  • A North Carolina resident
  • 16 to 25 years of age at the time of entry
  • Accepted into Wake Tech
  • Complete the acceptance criteria provided by FBF staff
  • Attend mandatory FBF new student orientation.

The following scholarships are available to FBF students:

  • Gilbert Scholarship
    Darlena Moore, a former foster youth, created the need-based scholarship, which is named in honor of her foster parents, Richard and Mary Gilbert of Asheville, and awarded annually. The Gilberts changed the lives of hundreds of children in foster care and guided Moore through the college process.
     
  • Babs Wagner Scholarship
    Sponsored by the Friends of the Wake County GAL, which provides scholarships to youth who were in foster care in Wake County.
     
  • Doris and Fred Huebner Scholarship
    Longtime supporters of FBF, Doris and Fred Heubner provide scholarships to FBF students who continue at a four-year university or college.

For more information about FBF, contact Ross Sinodis at [email protected] or 919-866-5485, or submit a contact form to let us know how we can help you.

Fostering Bright Futures partners

FBF is made possible by a network of community partners, including the following businesses and organizations:

  • Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina
  • CCNC
  • Diaper Train
  • Dress for Success
  • Hope Center at Pullen
  • Interfaith Food Shuttle
  • Kramden Institute
  • No Woman No Girl Initiative
  • One Simple Wish
  • NC Reach/ETV
  • The Green Chair Project
  • United Way of the Greater Triangle
  • Wake County Human Services
image of Wake Tech graduate Khadijah Scarborough smiling

"Wake Tech is more than just a college. ... It is a loving, caring and supportive family."

Khadijah Scarborough

Nursing, Class of 2022