About Us
The Rona R. Carter Scholarship Program is a community resource for foster care youth in the Greater Cleveland area. Its mission is to provide direct support to foster care youth, to encourage and empower them—and to help them become successful, contributing members of society.
The Program provides mentoring and networking opportunities to teens and young adults between the ages of 14 and 22 who dream of furthering their education. Through its Scholarship Fund, cash awards are made to graduating high school seniors who will attend a college, vocational school, or job-training program.
Rona Carter foster care teens are referred by social workers at the Cuyahoga County Department of Families and Children. The program’s college students that have officially “aged-out” of the county system continue to receive tuition support from the Rona Carter Program as long as they remain in school and maintain a 2.0 GPA.
Our Activities include:
- Scholarship Awards Presentations
- Career Exploration
- Mentor Protégé Interactions
- Group Social and Cultural Outings
- College Tours
- Back-to-School Giveaways
- Fundraising Events
History
The dream of Rona R. Carter, who spent ten years in the Cuyahoga County foster care system, was to help foster care youth continue their education. Academically talented, she graduated from high school in 1934 with honors, then enrolled in Wilberforce College as the first college student to receive financial assistance from the County’s Human Services Department. She later pursued a successful career in the City of Cleveland Recreation Department as arts and craft instructor and girls’ athletic coach. Rona Carter believed in her students’ ability to attain excellence, and imparted her high expectations to countless children.
When her students held a reunion celebration on her 65th birthday, the monetary gifts she received were set aside. After her death in 1998, her former students, friends and family, led by her daughter Miriam, used the money to form the Rona R. Carter Scholarship Fund realizing Carter’s dream of helping educate foster care youth.