Many freshmen stepping onto a college campus this fall can say they’ve officially left home. 

For me, arriving at SUNY Corning Community College helped me find mine. 

My mom, my siblings and I bounced around from place to place in towns across the Southern Tier throughout my childhood. We finally landed in Bath, where, at age 14, I moved one last time — into a foster home in Elmira. 

Until then, school had been a challenge because of the distractions in my home life that interfered with my ability to focus on academics. But now in high school and in a stable home, for the first time I saw a path toward college. I set my sights on studying to become a social worker because I wanted to make the same impact that my social worker made on me as a foster youth. However, financial aid and the availability of on-campus supports were........

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