Local graduates celebrate more than just diplomas, succeeding in the foster care system

SAINT JOSEPH COUNTY, Ind. -- Graduating high school is no easy feat, but for some, it wasn't the classes or exams that were the hardest part.

"I was four years old when my dad passed away unfortunately," says Jadyn Rivera-Blaylock, a Jimtown High School graduate. "Then my mom was always in and out of jail, never really in my life."

She's just one local graduating senior that went through the foster care system and high school at the same time.

"No one can really relate to that, so you kind of feel a little alone and isolated," says Lwanda Muigo, a Trinity on Greenlawn graduate.

Ten local graduates can relate though, and they can celebrate the fact that they've overcome hardships to get to where they are now and where they will be as they reach adulthood.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, in 2021, just a little over 50% of Indiana students in foster care graduated high school on time.

"If you've been through the kind of adversity a lot of these kids have been through, you are talking about situations that none of us understand," explains Jefferson Clay, Vice President of Cargo Services Inc. "They've had the perseverance to get through the adversity and get to the end."

Cargo Services Inc. and the Indianapolis Colts are two big advocates for Hoosier foster children.

They started throwing graduation parties for foster graduates 11 years ago starting with only six graduates, and now this year, ten in South Bend and 41 more down in Indianapolis.

"Yes, we have ten graduates here today, but it feels like their individual party, and it gives them a sense of accomplishment, and they deserve that," says Kristin Ballard, wife of the Indianapolis Colts General Manager Chris Ballard.

Ballard says she is able to relate to each of the families that have a graduating foster child.

"We adopted two girls in 2012, and my first adoptee graduated high school this year," Ballard says. "You go through so much, you go through a lot of ups and downs, I call it a rollercoaster ride, and for them to achieve this and to accomplish this when you thought they wouldn't even get a chance."

Several of the local graduates are going down the college route.

"In about like two weeks I'll be going to college, it's called IU Southeast and I'm going for criminology, and I might study psych too," Rivera- Blaylock says.

"I will be going to Purdue," says Muigo. "My plan is to get into the biomedical major and also double major with art."

It's a path they say wouldn't be possible if they didn't manage to break through the mold of the foster system.

"You can't just dwell on your past and say, 'Oh well this happened to me so I can't do this,' No. It's up to you," Rivera-Blaylock advises.

The graduates were supposed to have a special moment of recognition on the field before Wednesday night's South Bend Cubs game, but the game got cancelled because of rain.

They'll be able to use the tickets from the game to celebrate at a makeup game in the near future.