The University of Lynchburg has signed a memorandum of understanding with FIVE18 Family Services, formerly Patrick Henry Family Services, in support of FIVE18’s Foster/Kinship Youth Scholarship Program.
The University already had one partnership with FIVE18, a Lynchburg, Virginia-based nonprofit that, as stated on its website, “offers family services, care, counseling, and community resources needed to find relief and restore hope.”
The nonprofit’s farm in Campbell County, Virginia — for many years a boys and girls home — is home to Lynchburg’s equestrian center. The existing relationship between University and FIVE18 led to this new opportunity.
Under the agreement, FIVE18 will provide four $7,500 scholarships — a total of $30,000 a year — to four University of Lynchburg students who have experienced foster or kinship care.
Students who might benefit from the scholarship this fall have not yet been identified and must apply for the scholarship through FIVE18.
Before signing the MOU on Wednesday, June 12, University President Dr. Alison Morrison-Shetlar described the event as the “celebration of a very important day on campus.”
She later added that supporting students who have aged out of the foster care system is a cause “close to my heart.”
As part of the partnership, the University will provide trauma-specific counseling, special pre-enrollment activities, mentoring, financial aid support, the opportunity to live on campus year-round, post-graduation job assistance, and other resources.
While these resources are available to all Lynchburg students, the institution will “be intentional” in connecting FIVE18 scholarship students “with people and resources that will help them navigate their transition to college life and ensure they are successful while they’re here,” said Kristen Cooper, Lynchburg’s vice president for campus experience and student success.
Lynchburg’s supportive environment is why FIVE18’s chief executive officer, Robert Day, wanted to enter into the latest partnership with the institution. He believes the success of the students FIVE18 serves hinges on “how well they [are] cared for at the institution” and “Lynchburg’s commitment is what encouraged us.”
Day, who refers to himself as FIVE18’s “chief executive orphan,” knows what it’s like to be in foster care. Born to a teenage mom — herself a ward of the state — he grew up in and out of the foster care system.
He was the first member of his family to graduate from high school or college, and he credits his graduation from what was then Cumberland College, in Williamsburg, Kentucky, to scholarships he received and the support of faculty and staff.
“I was personally touched by the scholarship money, but also by an institution that had some caring individuals — professors and staff — who took a keen interest in making sure I was successful,” he said.
“The combination of those two things helped me get through that.”
After graduating from Cumberland — now University of the Cumberlands — Day earned two master’s degrees. “Higher education not only changed my life, but also the future of my children’s lives,” he said, “to break the pattern of poverty and dysfunction.
“At FIVE18, we’re keen on trying to invest in people from hard places. Our marketing team likes to say, ‘We’re changing futures.’”
Day also pointed out a historical connection between the University and FIVE18. The first executive director of what was then Patrick Henry Family Boys Plantation, Bob McCullough ’59, was a Lynchburg College graduate.
An economics major, McCullough “had a very successful management position and helped Patrick Henry Boys Plantation get off the ground,” Day said, “He served there 31 years and literally raised the money for all the scholarship funds that we have.
“A graduate from LC created the scholarships that will help kids from hard places get into school.”
