Speranza Gonzalez was a runaway — from her mother, from foster homes, from law enforcement — until she met Lakita Williams with Beyond Emancipation, an Oakland-based foster youth program giving a “hand up, not a handout.”

With the support and community she found in Beyond Emancipation, Gonzalez has bucked the challenges often faced by foster youth and is now pursuing her master’s degree in social work while applying to be a foster parent herself, paying it forward for the East Bay’s foster youth.

Foster youth face a particularly perilous transition into adulthood. Without the traditional safety net of parents, foster youth who age out of the system have a 50% chance of experiencing homelessness, a 69% chance of being incarcerated and face PTSD at twice the rate of combat veterans.

Gonzalez was eventually placed with Beyond Emancipation where she met her mentor Lakita Williams, a housing coordinator for Beyond Emancipation.

Now 25, Gonzalez has beaten the statistics. She is part of less than 5% of foster youth to graduate with a four-year college degree, which she earned from the University of San Francisco.

Now, she’s pursuing her higher education with Samuel Merritt University — a degree she wouldn’t have considered without Williams, she said. Williams, however, feels like all the credit should go to Gonzalez.

“Lakita and I have an amazing relationship, and one that I will hold on to forever,” Gonzalez said, “She showed me that someone can be involved without having to be overbearing.”