Aspiring social worker Tiwanna Gifford, 22, aged out of the foster care system.

Her moving opinion piece in the Atlanta Journal Constitution portrays the plight of former foster children. She was accepted into a master’s degree program at  New York University’s Silver School of Social Work. However, Gifford is $15,000 short of the money needed because she has no parent available to cosign a loan.

“While I don’t have a problem with being a statistic, I no longer want to be a negative statistic,” she wrote. “I want more than anything to be one of the few who made it. But even more than that, I want to be one of the ones who remembered to reach out to help someone else.”

To learn more about how social workers help foster children, visit the National Association of Social Workers’ “Help Starts Here” Adoptions and Foster Care Web page by clicking here.