FSS Youth Advisory Board member and 2022 Dream Tank finalist Dina Santos is featured in season 4, episode 4 of the “Get Plugged Into Resources” podcast from the Florida Institute for Child Welfare. The series features young people with lived experience in the foster care system discussing topics related to access and opportunities as youth in the child welfare system.

Dina joins host Dr. Elizabeth Wynter, executive director of Selfless Love Foundation, and Lisa Jackson, senior director of Florida State University’s Senior Program Director of Academic Support and Engagement at Center for Academic Retention and Enhancement, to discuss Florida’s tuition and fee exemption for young adults who are aging out of the foster care system.

Dina credits the support she received from Family Support Services as life-changing, opening up a path she didn’t imagine for herself. “When I was 17, I was on the brink of being homeless. I didn’t think college would even be an option for me,” she said. But once Dina’s FSS case worker explained the tuition waiver program to her, “it changed my entire life. … The tuition waiver allows me a chance to be able to attend college and not be … drowning in student loans.”

Watch and listen to the podcast in the video below. For episode resources and more podcast streaming options, read more at https://ficw.fsu.edu/podcast.