A great letter came in from Ashley Farrish, an OFA scholar from the University of Akron, who is studying in Europe this year:

“Right now, I am in England. I just got back from a trip to Amsterdam, Holland. Never in my life would I have thought that I would have the opportunity to study abroad. My freshman year, I thought about it and picked up information from my study abroad office, but knew because of my financial and family situation I wouldn’t be able to. I remember feeling sad because I felt like being a former foster child would hold me back from things that I wanted to do.

“Fast forward three years: I am in a totally different place in life. I was able to find a great support system and I now receive the OFA scholarship. I did my research to make sure that I would be able to use my scholarship abroad and was ecstatic when I found out I could! The process was not easy as pie. I had to move out of my leased apartment in December and live with a lot of friends until January 20th. I thank God that I had friends to do that. I took out some extra loans. I made sure that all of my academic credits would work out. I knew I would have to take summer courses.

“Throughout all of my worries and concerns and freaking out moments, I had a great mentor, Cori, who really helped me. She is always here for me. Before I left, I was sure I just sent her messages that were rambling madness, but she kept reassuring me that everything would be okay.

“And here I am, in Wolverhampton, England until the end of May. I had a hard time adjusting the first couple of weeks but now I am in the swing of things and I love it here! I have travelled to Edinburgh, Scotland and Amsterdam, Holland along with a slew of places in England itself. I will be going to London soon and in May, I will be in France and Rome. I never would have dreamed!

“The best experience is the people. I live with people from Germany, Czech Republic, Belgium, Austria, Hungary, Holland, France, Sweden, Italy, and the list can go on. It is so great to speak to people from other countries that have different perspectives on the U.S. I love learning about other countries. And I have become a more confident person, meeting people and being able to start friendships even though I know they will be long distant friendships soon.

“It feels good to represent us. I feel like accomplishing this has shown that no matter what happened to me in the past, I can do whatever I want in the present and in the future! I just feel like anything is possible now.