By Jon Marcus, Photo: Saul Martinez/The Hechinger Report, The Hechinger Report, March 6, 2022
With no one to support him after leaving foster care when he turned 18, Hasan Dickinson held down two jobs during his first semester at a large state university, running for the bus to work as soon as class was over.
Those outside time commitments took such a toll on his grades that he was stripped of his financial aid, blocked from registering for any more classes and he risked being kicked out of the dorm that was his only place to live.
Seeking help, Dickinson got lost in the kind of bureaucratic vortex that so often thwarts the aspirations of undergraduates. Sent from one office to another, he was close to giving up — until he found himself referred to someone whose title was “retention specialist.”
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