Instilling Hope: Full Circle from Scholar to Coach

A big part of a Pivotal coach's role is to understand the challenges their scholars face as they move through their educational journey. Often, before a student can focus on academics, they have to overcome significant obstacles such as housing, mental health issues, or financial concerns. In addition, nearly every young person from foster care is managing trauma at some level, which can impact their lives in many ways. Students sometimes have trouble focusing and withdraw from social or educational settings. Even reaching out to their coaches can be a challenge. If the young person also has a disability, they need even more support to accomplish their dreams. 

Nobody understands these challenges better than Pivotal post-secondary coach, Sarah Gentle. Legally blind from birth, Sarah entered foster care just prior to her senior year in high school and learned about Pivotal when she was 17.  

Savonna Stender-Bondesson was assigned as Sarah’s first coach. Now Pivotal’s Director of Coaching Programs, at the time, Savonna was a new intern coach at Pivotal. She remembers meeting Sarah for the first time, on campus at her high school. Having met a host of service providers in the short time since she entered care, Sarah was very skeptical about working with yet another organization and another person. But she and Savonna connected quickly. They started meeting regularly, and Savonna began attending Child and Family Team (CFT) meetings, Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings for students receiving special education support and other collaborative meetings with Sarah’s teachers, parents, and the other service providers with whom she worked.

“I remember clearly the first IEP meeting I went to with Sarah. Her teachers, the social worker, really everyone in the room, were just telling her what she should do. They all wanted her to go to school and become a court reporter, because she was blind and it was something they thought she could easily do,” says Savonna. “But she was just being spoken at; nobody was asking her what she wanted.” 

Savonna discussed it with Sarah after, and her instincts were correct. Sarah didn’t know she could speak up for herself. For the first time, someone was asking Sarah what she wanted to do, and over time, Savonna helped Sarah learn to advocate for herself and speak up, even practicing and role-playing so she was comfortable sharing what she needed and wanted. 

Sarah earned her high school diploma, and a Pivotal scholarship allowed her to continue to college and earn a Sociology degree.  She wanted to be a social worker.  While the financial support of a scholarship was extremely helpful, it was all the other things Pivotal provided - holiday celebrations, gifts and recognition throughout the year, and of course, ongoing coaching to help her navigate daily challenges – that helped Sarah find her own confidence to thrive through graduation and beyond. 

“So many other providers saw my limits, but my Pivotal coach saw my aspirations as limitless,” says Sarah, “Her unwavering support and dedication is what got me into college. Everyone I interacted with at Pivotal showed me the same warm acceptance that replaced the unconditional love that a parent would have shown me.” 

Sarah's journey with Pivotal didn’t end there. “I knew I was going to work for Pivotal someday. Part of thriving for me meant working for the place that had poured so much into me.” Three years ago, Sarah came back to Pivotal as a post-secondary coach where she uses her unique perspective to help other foster youth.  

Today, Sarah and the rest of the Pivotal coaching team are an unstoppable force for good in the lives of foster youth in our community. “I find motivation in creating safe spaces for my scholars to reflect and be vulnerable; much like what I received as a scholar,” she says. “We help each student simplify the complicated systems of adulthood while holding a lot of space for mental and emotional struggles.” 

 

“Sarah is an incredible, dedicated leader,” says Ashley Matysiak, Pivotal’s Director of Program Partnerships. “As a scholar she was a leader amongst her peers and served on Pivotal's Scholar Advisory Board.  Not only did Sarah share her personal insights and experiences but also developed and modeled professionalism and advocacy.  She has continued her leadership as a coach and in her work with Pivotal’s alumni.” 

Sarah provides leadership and support through the Pivotal Alumni Association, a growing network for former Pivotal scholars finding ways to support each other through higher education and beyond. She recently got a guide dog, aptly named Future, who is invaluable in helping her navigate the world and is now a part of the Pivotal team. She is also continuing her own education, starting her master’s in social work (MSW) this fall and credits much of her success to the support she found at Pivotal from coaches like Savonna. “At one of the early holiday celebrations we were at together,” Savonna remembers, “I told her that I couldn’t wait to see her become a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) - and now, she’s doing it! She’s starting her MSW this year and I have no doubt that in a few years, she’ll have that LCSW and will continue to even greater things.”