When Ricky Richard was 8 years old, his mother went to prison, and his father abandoned the five children upon her sentence.
Through two unstable homes and endless troubles with relatives, Richard said being a foster child posed its challenges. However, his experience in the system could not compare with the difficulty of his aging out of it at 18.
“Basically, whenever you’re 18, you’re pretty much on your own,” he said.
The University’s School of Social Work, in collaboration with the Office of Diversity, will host its seventh annual Family Impact Seminar on May 6. The event will be held in the LSU Energy, Coast and Environment Building.
This year’s theme is “Youth Aging Out of Foster Care: Eliminating Barriers to College Success.” 
Richard will serve on the panel of former foster youth to offer a firsthand perspective on the nation’s foster care system.
“I think power comes in the story,” Richard said. “There’s so many layers.”
After his first home unraveled at a young age, Richard and his siblings were sent to live with their grandmother. It would be his first foster care experience.
He said his grandmother was both verbally and physically abusive. The children escaped from her guardianship after a rocky five years. The federal government then sent them to live with their uncle, who was in college at the time.
“He was like 25 and he took us all in — five teenagers — like it was no big deal,” Richard said. “And we needed that.”
Although Richard said his uncle made a major sacrifice in caring for him and his siblings, he said the situation was not ideal.
Richard said court representatives came to inspect the environment for the first two years. They checked in about once a month to ensure everything was running smoothly.
However, after those first couple years, the visits stopped.
Richard said his uncle’s personal struggles caused tension to erupt in the foster home. He does not speak to his uncle today.
“I don’t think he had the support that he really needed,” Richard said. “And I think that’s really what the foster care system needs.”
Richard said having a mentorship program within the foster care system would vastly improve it as an institution. Had he not had his own family friends and teachers act as mentors to him growing up, he said he would not be where he is today.
It was one of Richard’s teachers who inspired him to share his story.
She told Richard the optimistic, successful version of himself he presented to the world did not reflect his troubled past. His ability to overcome his history, she said, was a gift that needed to be shared with others.
“I just want to inspire people to overcome obstacles,” Richard said.
As soon as Richard turned 18, his situation became yet another obstacle to tackle. 
He was one of approximately 26,000 youth who age out of the foster system each year, according to Pew Charitable Trust. Of those, less than 2 percent are expected to graduate college by age 25.
As a University kinesiology senior, Richard is close to beating the odds.
Financial and living arrangements were planned far ahead of time, as Richard said he knew he would need to organize everything on his own.
To fund himself for college applications, Richard set aside a pot of money earned from working various odd jobs in high school, ranging from a Dollar General sales clerk to an ACT tutor.
His hard work came to fruition when he was granted the Bill Gates Millennium Scholarship, which offered Richard a full-ride to the University.
Richard has kept busy at the University through the Student Ambassadors Program, the Black Male Leadership Initiative and LSU Change Break-Ecuador, among many other organizations. He was recently named a member of the Tiger Twelve by LSU President F. King Alexander.
Though one in five of those who age out of foster care wind up homeless, according to Pew Charitable Trust, Richard found his home at the University and plans to use his skills in Latin America.
“I want to go to either medical school or P.A. school and open up clinics in Latin American countries,” he said.
Richard credits his graceful transition to his Grand Lake, Louisiana, community.
“I think I’ve been really lucky to have a community foster me and be my mentors,” Richard said. “They had high expectations for my siblings and me, and that’s what really pushed me toward doing well.”