From foster care to the classroom: WA student turns childhood turmoil into purpose

By the time Winter reached high school, she had already lived through more upheaval than many experience in a lifetime.

Winter entered Washington’s foster care system at age 3, separated from her sisters and placed in three different foster homes over the course of her childhood. First, in elementary school, again in middle school, and a third time as a teenager. Each move brought new disruptions and left scars she still works through today.

“When I was a child, I definitely suffered through depression,” Winter said. “It would be hard for me when I was younger to get out of bed in the morning. It would be hard for me to eat.”

But Winter said each placement also gave her something she could hold onto.

Her first foster mother in Alaska took her hiking and camping, helping her connect with her Native heritage.

Her middle-school foster mother introduced her to Treehouse, a Seattle-based nonprofit that supports youth in foster care. Winter remembers staff there opening their doors and their closets to make sure she had what she needed.

“One of the worst things about growing up poor was that I never had any clothing,” Winter shared. “Treehouse has this giant warehouse full of clothes, and I think most of it, or all of it, are new clothes.”

It was her high school foster mother, she said, who changed the course of her future — inspiring her to become a teacher.

“She was actually my sister’s sixth-grade teacher,” Winter explained.

Now a junior in college, Winter is one year away from earning her degree and stepping into her own classroom for the first time.

“Treehouse is such a big impact on my life, and that’s really why I really wanted to do this, because I think Treehouse is one of the best programs that we have for foster kids,” Winter said.

And for any foster kids facing the instability she once knew, Winter has a message: you’re not alone, and the challenges you’re facing now don’t have to define the path ahead.

“I would want to tell them that they are wanted and they are loved. There are so many people that they will inspire when they’re older,” Winter said. “Even though, right now, they don’t feel that way.”

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