Adrianna Eskew was at Herrington Homestead less than a year. But it changed her entire future.
Removed from their Augusta home and in a temporary placement, she and her three younger sisters were placed at Herrington Homestead in February of 2015.
Within days of their arrival, the girls learned of some formidable obstacles they would have to overcome.
“We all faced educational neglect and medical neglect,” said Adrianna. “We were very far behind in school.”
The situation appeared most difficult of all for her as a 17-year-old. All four children had been home schooled, and their records were not kept as well as they should have been. The most recent record for her regular school attendance was ninth grade.
“The local high school told me I could attend but I would age out at 21 and still not have a high school diploma,” she said.
With the help of Betty Coleman, Resident Director at Herrington, they devised a plan for Adrianna to study for and earn her general equivalency diploma (GED). She was able to do that by the summer of 2015.
“They provided me with a tutor to help me work on what I needed to catch up on. It was difficult but I was very determined to not end up at 17 or 18 years old with nothing to show for my education, “she said. “That worked well and I was very grateful that Ms. Betty allowed me to take a nontraditional route to education and get back on track.”
Adrianna’s younger sisters were able to enroll in the local schools, find placement at the proper grade levels and get the learning support they needed to excel.
Adrianna, now 24, was able to continue her studies in early 2016 at a local college before transferring to Georgia Southern University, where she is scheduled to graduate in a few months. As with other college students from Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth homes, her expenses have been covered through the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes Foundation. Although she was technically at Herrington for less than a year, it was a huge boost for her personally after having been forced to assume an extraordinary amount of responsibility in her former home.
“It was about not being in charge,” she said. “I had been raising three kids, running and doing all the things I was expected to do. At Herrington Homestead I didn’t have to be the responsible one who was keeping up with the others’ grades and checking behind them, trying to maintain three children’s livelihoods and futures. That was taken off my shoulders so I could focus on my own school work.”
A geology major at Georgia Southern, Adrianna already has a job lined up with a civil engineering firm. Her long-term goals include one day running her own environmental consulting firm.
She also work with Georgia Peers Advocating for Change, a youth advisory board that counts among its accomplishments a billed signed into law in 2021 which allows children in a foster home to attend a technical school for free of charge, without the stress of trying to secure grants or other financial aid. The group is now working with the Board of Regents to get the same financial assistance for foster children who wish to attend any college in the University System of Georgia.
“Unfortunately, not everyone has that opportunity [like she had at Herrington]. If we had gone to the foster family that was first considered I would have had none of these opportunities,” she said. “The simple fact that the Georgia Sheriffs’ Youth Homes stepped up for me and my sisters, and ensured that we have a very strong foundation to build our futures on, was such a wonderful relief. I felt led to try and find that for others.”