Cherish Fields is a social worker at the House of Providence in Detroit, providing housing, therapy, and educational support to children in the welfare system. She is giving children the support that she needed as a foster child.

Cherish is an alumnus of University of Michigan’s Blavin Scholars Program, a program that has served college students from foster care since 2006, thanks to the financial contributions of Paul and Amy Blavin. Nationally, only 2-4 percent of these students receive bachelor’s degrees. At the University of Michigan, 30 students from foster care have been empowered by the Blavin Scholars Program, receiving a world class education and obtaining their bachelor’s degrees.

The Blavin Scholars Program has a 95 percent graduation rate because it provides exceptional support to their scholars through through campus coaching, staff/faculty mentorship, and workshops.

Cherish Fields. Credit: Michigan Photography.

Miriam Connolly, the Director of the Blavin Scholars Program, emphasized the importance of the support system provided by the program: “We want to let those individuals know that they can come to the Univesrity of Michigan, that they can be successful here and that with the support that we provide to them, they can thrive here.”

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