CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Two sisters from Central Texas grew up bouncing between foster homes, unsure of what their futures might look like. Today, Jalen and Kaselyn Counterman walk across the campus of Texas A&M–Corpus Christi — not just as students, but as proof of what can happen when opportunity meets resilience and determination.
The sisters didn’t talk much about their early years in care. What they did share was the feeling of constantly starting over, never knowing what might come next, and rarely having adults in their lives to help them imagine college as an option. But at 18, when the clock runs out on state care, those who “age out” of foster care in Texas qualify for a tuition and fee waiver that covers their education at public colleges and universities. It’s a lifeline the Counterman sisters grabbed and refused to let go.
For Kaselyn, a mechanical engineering major, mentorship became one of the first missing pieces to fall into place…