The program offers full tuition and housing for four years and expenses for books, supplies, and emergency costs. It also supplies services including peer mentorship, tutoring, financial aid, access to mental health services, a “Welcome Week” and employs a qualified liaison to assist the students full time.
For its pilot year, the program is serving a cohort of six students.
UH law school alumni Andrea and Andy Diamond are behind the multi-million dollar program.
The retired couple, who formerly owned a steel distribution business, said they originally set out to help women and children in the Houston area who had been abandoned and abused, but they focused in on foster youth after learning that services within the foster care system stop abruptly once a person is 18 years old.