A passion to see former foster children succeed led Eighmy to Impact San Antonio
UTSA’s First Lady and a new Impact San Antonio member, Eighmy is heavily involved in UTSA’s Early Start Experience. This program received a 2019 High Impact Grant to help fund a six-day orientation program designed to help former foster children transition successfully to university life.
Peggy Eighmy refers to herself as UTSA’s First Lady. As the wife of university President Taylor Eighmy, her tasks are many and varied.
She has been heavily involved in a state-funded UTSA program, the Fostering Educational Success Center (FESC), which started at the university in fall 2019. Partnering with the center is the Early Start Experience. That program, which received a 2019 High Impact Grant from Impact San Antonio, is a six-day orientation session designed to help former foster children transition into university life.
In addition to all of this, Peggy is a new member of Impact San Antonio!
We asked her to talk about her work at the university and her interest in Impact San Antonio.
Why did you decide to join Impact San Antonio?
I love the collective power of women coming together to impact real change in San Antonio. Supporting young people who have been in the foster care system is something I’m very passionate about. I was very impressed with the thoughtfulness of the women who visited UTSA as a part of the grant review process. It was abundantly clear that they had all carefully considered our proposal. And Grant Award Night left an indelible impression. When I joined Impact San Antonio, I did not anticipate the pandemic, so I am all the more grateful to join other women in service to our community.
What is the Early Start Experience program that received the Impact SA grant?
UTSA formally launched the Fostering Educational Success Center (to aid former foster children) in 2019. The Early Start Experience (ESE) will formally launch in August 2020 as a six-day orientation program.
How does the program, and the Educational Success Center, benefit students who have been in foster care?
At UTSA, we start these students out before they first step foot on our campus so they can have the best possible experience. When students leave foster care, they leave with really significant challenges in life. They’ve experienced trauma at incredibly high levels. We want to help them bridge that gap from foster care to college. We accept freshmen and/or transfer students. We provide specialized workshops in academic success, life success, health including mental health, wellness and financial literacy.
Students are going to live on campus, so they will learn what that experience is like. We give them the opportunity to move in (to residence halls) early. It’s really embarrassing when your roommate’s parents are asking where your parents are. We want to change that for these students. ESE will provide all these students with laptops and give them a credit to the bookstore. We also give them gift cards, and we’re going to go shopping together so they can get all the stuff they need for their dorm.
How are COVID precautions affecting the program this year?
We have seen a significant increase in students seeking resources and support in recent months, particularly related to our emergency fund. Our most common uses of the emergency fund have been related to basic needs — food, housing, utilities and medical bills. Our focus now is to ensure they have the necessary information on new student orientation, registering for classes and securing on-campus housing. Should we need to shift to online/remote program delivery in the fall, we anticipate the use of many of the same supports such as housing, laptops to complete course work, and creating a sense of community with other students. We’ve also been able to offer employment opportunities to six FESC students to launch the peer mentoring component of the FESC and ESE.
What kind of feedback have you received from students who are already in the program?
We remain humbled by the stories we hear each day from our students about the difference the FESC makes in their lives, and we are incredibly excited to launch the ESE in August to add to their experiences. Thank you again to Impact San Antonio for making the ESE possible!
You refer to yourself as UTSA’s First Lady. What do you do in that role?
That’s a great question. Frankly, almost three years in, I am still figuring out the role for myself. My primary role is to be an excellent partner to my husband, Taylor, and an ambassador and advocate for UTSA. We participate together in all aspects of the life of the university beyond the president’s office. When my husband accepted the job, I knew for certain that I wanted to impact real change in the lives of young people with a history of foster care. I am so grateful that my role gives me a certain agency without which I would not have been able to rally the support and interest that I have to get the Bexar County Fostering Educational Success pilot project off the ground. We are changing lives, and it is humbling to be a part of it.
