Telegraph photo by CASEY JUNKINS Casey Junkins, city editor of The Telegraph, earned this bachelor’s degree by graduating with a 3.65 GPA from Ohio University in 2003. Statistics released this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services show that just 4.8% of men who have ever been in the foster care system have a bachelor’s degree. Junkins was in the foster care system from 1991 through 1996. Therefore, statistically, his chances of completing a bachelor’s degree were less than 1 in 20, according to the study.

I have worked very hard for a very long time so as to never think of myself as a victim in life.

Though I refuse to play the victim role, reviewing a study released this week by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proved quite an eye-opening experience for me.

You see, this study shows the chances for me to be on public assistance are at 51.9%. Meanwhile, it indicates the odds of me completing a bachelor’s degree are a paltry 4.8%.

That means, statistically, my chances for being on welfare are more than 10 times higher than the odds are for me to graduate from Ohio University with a 3.65 GPA.

Hmmm?

Well, as you can see by the diploma in the accompanying photo, I apparently overcame the rather long odds.

The federal report measures statistical outcomes for children in foster care. I was in foster care from approximately August 1991 to August 1996.

The analysis shows that among Americans ages 18 to 44, roughly 2.9 million people have spent time in foster care. The data indicates that for men who were “ever in foster care,” only 4.8% of them have bachelor’s degrees. This compares to 31.1% bachelor’s degree attainment for men who were never in foster care.

Wow!

The vast majority of children in foster care are there for at least one of these reasons:

• They are abused by their biological parents;

• Government officials declare their biological parents incapable or unfit to care for them;

• Their parents are incarcerated or in drug rehab; or

• Their parents simply don’t want them.

Not a single one of these factors applied to me, however.

I was born as the only child of two wonderful parents. While living in the rolling hills of the Ohio countryside, my loving Mom and Dad spoiled me with affection during my childhood.

Unfortunately, this was not meant to last. My Dad fought a valiant battle against metastatic melanoma skin cancer before dying while I was in sixth grade. Only one-and-a-half years later, my wonderful Mom succumbed to metastatic breast cancer. Just 13 days after turning 13, I was an orphaned only child.

Because I was so young, lost, heartbroken and traumatized by all of this, I could not get along with the multiple relatives who took me in after Mom died. Therefore, with no one to advise me, I made the difficult decision to ask my relatives to place me in foster care.

For the next five years, life did not get a whole lot better. Despite the genuine efforts of numerous foster parents, caseworkers, counselors, teachers, principals, tutors, and blood relatives, no one could really get through to me. I was never really a behavioral problem, but I just couldn’t find the motivation to do anything. Even though I had the intellect to succeed in school, I was just too lost. I bottomed out during my time in high school by posting a pathetic GPA of 0.9 for at least one quarter.

After turning age 18, I ultimately graduated from high school on June 1 of that year. Obviously lacking the grades and/or test scores to go to college, I decided to try out of the U.S. Army. However, a slight physical impairment on my foot disqualified me. Therefore – with no mother, father, brother or sister; no driver’s license or vehicle; and a high school diploma I barely earned – I set out on my own in the fall 1996.

Without really noticing it at age 18, I surely fit the definition of a homeless person for about nine months from October 1996 to July 1997.

Eventually, with God’s help, I found my way through life. After spending two-plus years trying to get a little bit of stability, I managed to get a driver’s license, and start attending a technical college.

Despite my terrible grades and test scores in high school, I did well enough during my time at the technical college to qualify for transfer to Ohio University in 2000.

Eventually, I realized I could do fairly well with academics, particularly English, political science and history. I went on to graduate cum laude in 2003.

By this time, my plan was to attend law school. That never came to fruition because I simply didn’t do well enough on the LSAT entrance exam … despite taking it twice and studying as best I knew how for hours on end.

Then one day, in what must have been November 2006, I got a call about a potential job as a reporter for The Telegraph’s sister newspapers, The Intelligencer/Wheeling News-Register of Wheeling, West Virginia.

I guess I just found my niche in journalism.

The moral of the story is that while life is not fair, one has to do the best they can with the circumstances before them.

And realistically, there are millions of:

• Orphans

• Foster Children

• Former foster children

• People who have been or are now homeless

• Cancer victims and their families

• And countless others who are heartbroken or simply forgotten by society who have it far worse than I do in this world.

It seems likely to me that part of God’s plan is to give me a voice to speak for those who have little voice. That is what I try to do every day.

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