ALUMNI NEWS

Angela D. Forbeck '03

Angela D. Forbeck ’03 was selected Foster Parent of the Year by the Allegany County Department of Social Services. She is the director of Upward Bound and Math/Science at FSU. Profile asked her to share her personal story of the challenges and rewards of being a foster parent. 

What year did you become a foster parent: 2014

How many children have you fostered to date:
Six placements and numerous respite cases.

Why I foster:
Helping is a very basic instinct for me. I always knew I wanted to foster and care for children who were not my own since I was very young. Being a child of the 1980s and ’90s, I remember hearing a lot about refugee families fleeing war zones, and I wanted to be someone out there helping them. I even begged my parents to take in a refugee family and foster children during most of my childhood. As a young adult, I noticed the need was much closer to my doorstep than Cambodia. The need is all around us. I volunteered as a Big Sister for about five years, and then I decided to take a big leap forward and become a Resource Parent for Allegany County. Often children come into my home far behind in academics. One child struggled with first-grade spelling words. It became evident that he did not even know what sound his letters made. We had a lot of problems with the word “the” being pronounced as “va.” One night we were practicing our “th” sounds and this light bulb clicked in this child's head. The child looked right at me and said, “Oh, THE!” and then proceeded to pronounce every word perfectly that had caused so much crying for weeks. Once the reading began, it didn't stop. Every time I walked by and saw a tiny head going through books, my heart would leap.