CU Parents Supporting Guardian Scholars
Care Packages and More!
When we send our kids off to college, they know that they have a family supporting and encouraging them. But for students who do not have parental or family support, they have aged out of foster care, or they are declared emancipated by the courts, or they are independent and homeless, their needs are greater. They don't have someone to call when they need a new pair of shoes, or extra money for food, or a jacket for the cold weather. And these kind of necessities are not covered by their financial aid.
That's where we come in! We are a group of families that want to help support these students. We work with the University of Colorado, Boulder and support students in the Guardian Scholars Program.
What We Do
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Care Packages for Back to School, Midterms, and Finals
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Birthday Boxes
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Graduation Gifts
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Help setting up dorm rooms
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Filling apartment needs
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Help providing food through Flatiron Cards
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Addressing needs as they arise
Writing Letters of Encouragement
In each Care Package, we include letters of encouragement. These are notes written by volunteers to cheer the students on, encourage them to take care of themselves, all the things that you would say to your children.
When we delivered our first Care Packages, the comments that the Director shared with us from the students included "They sent handwritten notes. I'm honestly tearing up right now" and "The most touching part was that they wrote it as if they were addressing their own kids in college!” One student said that she keeps a note with her for when she is having a difficult day. Another student has them on her refrigerator. Your notes mean a lot to them.
If you are interested in helping with this part of the project, please fill out this form:
Flatiron Partnership
Another way to help Guardian Scholars is by providing food support. We do this by partnering with the Flatiron Meal Plan Program. If you would like to put money on the students’ Flatiron cards, you can donate ABOVE or you can contact
Drew Pendergrass at (303) 415-0067
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Flatiron cards not only provide meals for the students but also provide social experiences with other students by giving them the opportunity to go to restaurants with friends.
flatironmealplan.com
To provide support for Guardian Scholars, students who have experienced foster care, homelessness, or a lack of stable guardian support, and are enrolled as undergraduate or graduate students at the University of Colorado, Boulder.
Our Mission
Several parents became aware of the Guardian Scholars program. This program supports students who have no family support. This could be because they aged out of the foster care system without being adopted. It could be that they were emancipated by the courts before they turned 18. There are a variety of reasons that this situation occurs. We looked at all we were doing for our children and realized that the Guardian Scholars needed the same support. So we created a group to provide these students with the same sort of support that we provide for our own kids.