Kenya Adeola
Degree: Bachelor’s in Spanish
College/School: Steven J. Green College of International and Public Affairs
By the time she was 18 years old, Kenya Adeola had lived in nine different foster homes and attended five different high schools.
Despite the constant disruption of the foster care system – moving at a moment’s notice, making new friends only to leave them after a few months – Kenya knew she wanted to get an education and leave the chaos of her early years behind.
She enrolled at FIU in August 2011 and immediately became involved in campus life, serving as a peer advisor and a member of the Homecoming Committee, the Academy of Leaders, Omicron Delta Kappa, Order of the Torch and Alpha Kappa Psi.
Kenya also advocates for former foster care students like herself. She was a founding member of HEROES, (Helping Everyone Reach Opportunity, Empowerment and Success.), a student organization created to support homeless and foster youth on campus.
Kenya is graduating with two internships this summer in Washington D.C. – one with the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and one with Sen. Tim Scott. She has plans to go on to medical school and become a pediatric neurosurgeon. One day, she hopes to work for the United Nations.