Furnishing Futures: Project Dorm RoomSets Up Foster Youth For Success in College!

For most incoming freshmen, moving into their first dorm means parents, a packed car, and hours spent on Target runs picking out bedding together. For foster youth, this core memory looks and feels very different: no shopping trips, coordinated sheet sets, or family move-in days, just a few belongings in a trash bag, and an unspoken reminder that you are different.

While 93% of foster youth dream of attending college, only 3-4% go on to complete a four-year degree. Of those who enroll, one in five drop out within four years, and nearly half leave within their first year for reasons that have nothing to do with ability. Most enter college having aged out of a system with no family to call, no one to help them navigate college let alone adulthood.

Steven felt that gap the day he moved into his dorm at UCLA carrying a single pillow and a throw blanket.

Ready to Succeed’s Project Dorm Room exists for exactly this moment. Founded in 2017, it meets the most immediate needs first: bedding, towels, toiletries, school supplies, so a student’s first night on campus doesn’t start with nothing. But the supplies are the smaller part of what it gives.

“For most students, moving into a dorm is a rite of passage. For foster youth, it can feel daunting without family support,” says Romi Lassally, co-founder and CEO of Ready to Succeed. “Project Dorm Room changes that moment. It says: you belong here, you are supported, your dreams matter. With something as simple as a set of sheets or a desk lamp, we’re not just furnishing dorms. We’re furnishing futures.”

The program has grown from 75 students to more than 1,000 served across a dozen Cal State and UC campuses and a handful of out-of-state schools. Each summer, roughly 350 incoming freshmen receive both the supplies and the support that comes with them.

For Steven, that support meant something concrete and lasting. “When I participated in Project Dorm Room, it felt like I had a family moving me in,” he says.

Project Dorm Room also opens a door to Ready to Succeed’s Career Accelerator Program, which begins sophomore year and includes coaching, internships, mental health resources, and $5,000 annual scholarships. About 30% of Project Dorm Room students apply. Of those who do, 100% graduate, 10 times the national average for foster youth, and 85% land career-track jobs within a year.

Steven graduated in 2024. He’s now in a post-baccalaureate program, working toward becoming a cardiothoracic surgeon, a goal that once would have seemed as far away as a college dorm with his name on the door.