According to a 2013 study conducted by the Child Welfare Information Gateway, an estimated 399,546 children are in America’s foster care system. Out of that high number, Gary Strangler, executive director of the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiatives, says thousands who age out of the system after turning 18-years-old have difficulties adjusting to life as an independent citizen.
“In fact, over the past decade, more than 200,000 teenagers have aged out of foster care often without achieving permanent family connections or those critical building blocks of support,” explained Strangler.
Despite overwhelming obstacles, one young man managing to excel post-foster care is Berkeley native Jaquel Pitts. Since making his exit from the system the day after his high school graduation in 2012, the 20-year-old has managed to earn an associate degree in social science from College of Siskiyous. He is working on his bachelor’s degree and pressing toward a promising NFL career.
Around age five, Pitts’ mother Ashanti McMickin relinquished him to child protective services as a result of what he calls “mental complications.” Pitts admits the beginning of his experience under foster care wasn’t an easy adjustment.
“The first couple of days in placement, when I realized I didn’t have my mother in my life, I cried for at least two weeks straight,” said Pitts. “I never had a father in my life, and she was all I knew.” Feeling like an outsider was something that bothered him for awhile. “It’s awkward and discouraging when you see your friends with their biological parents and you have to go home to someone who’s not related to you,” says Pitts.
Regardless, he credits his “strong sense of mental fortitude” as essential to helping him persevere. “The key to my foster care success was, I knew at the end of the tunnel, there was light, and if I kept my eyes on the prize, I knew things would get better.”
Throughout his 14 years within the Contra Costa County foster care system, Pitts moved through five different homes due to parents no longer wanting the responsibility or their diminishing ability to provide for him.
His first guardians were an elderly couple who he said instilled in him a hard work ethic, and taught him to be respectful of others.
On the opposite end, Pitts explained that some guardians were clearly only there for the money.
“Close to my exit from foster care, there was one person who actually put their hands on me and it was my foster mother,” he says of the incident. “I heard her say, ‘they’re not paying me anymore so he has to go.’”
Moments like these gave Pitts added motivation to be on his own. “I was so determined to get out of high school, go to college and get a degree that I knew that everyday there was going to be something trying to degrade or discourage me.”
Helping Pitts along the way was a strong interest in academics and sports. By the time he finished elementary school, he had earned 30 certificates for academic excellence. Making the honor roll multiple times, he began an athletic career. Alongside basketball and track, Pitts found a huge passion for football.
“Those were things that allowed me to stay out of the house to prevent negative situations,” says Pitts of his strategy in playing three sports. “My goal was to stay out of the house as much as possible.” During his high-school football career, Pitts played wide-receiver, running back, punt-return and kick-return. Being so well-rounded would spearhead a real interest in pursuing the NFL which meant a rigorous training regimen that he still partakes in today. “To be the best, you have to train like the best,” he says.
Once out of the foster care system and on his own, Pitts felt a sense of independence he’d always longed for. “That was the most exciting time in my life because I realized that I was finally on my own,” Pitts said. “I was the captain of my ship, and I had full control.”
During this time, he found himself attending several institutions of higher education including Gavilan College in Northern California, Bethany and Campbellsville universities in Kansas, and Trinity International University.
“The reason I was moving around was because most universities I went to cost $30,000-40,000 per year and it made more sense to take courses whenever I could in the most inexpensive way,” said Pitts, who balanced between classroom and online coursework.
In May, he found himself taking extra units for football eligibility and finished his associates degree at College of Siskiyous. “I realized I wasn’t too far from my AA degree so I thought I might as well get it and I wanted to rest my body for next football season.”
Pitt said his experience as a foster child led him to study the social sciences. “You learn about different things, about human behavior and interaction,” he said.
Around that time, then 19-year-old Pitts was able to locate his biological father, Terrence Dokes, through the county-provided aftercare services which included DNA testing for parental match making. When the two finally met, Pitts recalls the moment being very positive.
“There wasn’t any ‘you weren’t there for me’ stuff and we laughed almost the whole conversation,” he remembers. Later introduced to his father’s side of the family, Pitts realized the majority of men also had a passion for football.
“The only negative I have about the system was the foster parents,” he explains. “The foster care system provides a lot of services and if you can get through that one issue, you can proceed to the next level in your life.”
Currently attending Mayville University in North Dakota, Pitts hopes to earn his bachelors in social science by 2016. Besides playing football for the university, he’s working toward the NFL Regional Combine, Elite 11 competition and possibly the 2015 NFL Draft.
Pitts is also growing in popularity as a motivational speaker and personal trainer. “My main motivational factor was the critics, and I had to prove them wrong,” he said. “With my mindset, there wasn’t any room for failure. Others gave themselves the option to fail, and I said ‘no way.’”
