First Lady Melania Trump and LSU have secured $5 million to create a permanent endowment for foster‑care students.
Funding and Initiative
The endowment, part of the Fostering the Future initiative launched in 2022, will fund scholarships for young adults aging out of foster care.
The program builds on the Be Best campaign started in May 2018 to improve children’s well‑being.
National Context
Roughly 400,000 children remain in U.S. foster care, and about 20,000 age out each year without a permanent family, according to the Education Department.
Only 55 percent of foster‑care youth earn a high school diploma, versus 87 percent of their peers, and fewer than 5 percent complete a college degree, the National Foster Youth Institute reports.
By age 24, just half of former foster youth are employed, compared with roughly 75 percent of non‑foster peers, and earnings are typically lower.
Implementation and Support
Melania Trump will travel to Baton Rouge on November 7 to formally launch the program on LSU’s campus, followed by attendance at the LSU Tigers versus Alabama Crimson Tide football game at Tiger Stadium.
The donation creates lasting scholarships that will be awarded to eligible students.
In August, the White House announced $2 million in scholarships funded by IndyCar and Fox Sports for students at Indiana and Purdue universities.
“The greatest achievement investment America can make is not in technology, infrastructure, or capital markets; it’s in our children,” she said at a White House event.
“Our mission is simple yet transformational: Provide every young person from the foster care community the chance to earn a college education, launch a meaningful career, and achieve lasting financial independence,” she added.
In June, the administration introduced Fostering the Future Accounts, extending the $1,000 tax‑deferred investment model for newborns to children in foster care, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said.
“Fostering the Future Accounts give foster children the same chance for asset ownership and long‑term wealth building as every other American child,” President Trump said at the time.
The broader effort stems from an executive order signed by President Trump and the first lady in November 2025, aimed at strengthening foster care support nationwide and expanding education, career, housing and other opportunities for youth transitioning to adulthood.
“This executive order, fostering the future for American children and families, gives me tremendous pride,” the first lady said. “It is both empathetic and strategic. It will certainly be impactful.”
