College Tour 2026: Endless Possibilities
by Heather Juarez, Voices For Children Development Coordinator
Heather Juarez (center) with Sonia Granados (L) and Nikquana Duncan (R).
Working under the development team, I don’t often get to spend time directly with the children we serve. Most of the time, I’m working with our wonderful donors, making sure that our accounting is correct, and everything is running smoothly in the background. This was my first trip with our youth in foster care, traveling with them on a college tour with Voices for Children across Florida, and it was an experience that’ll stay with me for a long time.
We traveled to Florida Atlantic University (FAU), University of South Florida (USF), University of Central Florida (UCF), Valencia College, Florida State University (FSU), and Florida A&M University (FAMU). All of them were beautiful and interesting in their own ways and welcomed our youth with open arms and great information.
I remember when I graduated high school and the world seemed so much bigger all of a sudden. Everyone would tell me the world was my oyster. Now, here I was saying the same thing to a bunch of great kids experiencing the big world with fewer privileges than I had growing up. A part of me felt an obligation to direct them and guide them and another part of me was afraid of saying the wrong thing!
Moments That Stood Out
I had two defining moments on this trip.
The first was when we walked into FAU and our college tour guide (who was amazing, btw! So much great energy!), showed the kids their college dorms. They were looking around, checking out the space and furniture, and I could hear the kids talking about where they’d place their furniture, what they might cook there (“probably a lot of uber eats”), and who they’d invite over to visit them. Here they were already picturing themselves going to college, organizing their rooms and putting themselves in the shoes of a College Student. I immediately felt the importance of letting our youth explore options and possibilities they hadn’t given much thought until it was right in front of them.
The second defining moment was speaking to one of our youths. I asked her how she felt about college, and she said she didn’t know if she would get in. Her GPA was a little low in school, and she was in the 11th grade, so she didn’t know if she’d be able to get it up before she graduated. Valencia College came to the rescue, letting her know that she could be accepted into their AA program, and she could eventually move on to a different university from there. Suddenly, her dream of becoming a vet tech was back in the picture!
Heather Juarez serves as the Coordinator for the Development Team at Voices For Children, where she helps support fundraising initiatives that create brighter futures for children and youth in foster care. Prior to joining the Foundation, she spent nine years with the Guardian ad Litem Office and remains deeply committed to serving our community's most vulnerable children.
