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Media Credit: Austin Leeds Andrew Bridge, author of "Hope's Boy" shares the good and bad stories of his past.

A picture of a young boy on the cover of "Hope's Boy" is the now grown Andrew Bridge who spoke at the Boone Campus as an advocate for the foster children.

In the United States there are half a million children who are fosters kids, the average age being 10 years old. Only three percent of these children ever make it to college.

The book's cover picture was taken at the age of seven, after he had been taken from his mother who was mentally ill.

Bridge lived in Los Angeles foster care at the McClaren Institute. He now refers to it as "a violent dumping ground" where he, along with hundreds of others, shared and called their home. "No one asked me my name, told me where I was going or said anything about my mother," said Bridge. "They took the last possessions of my identity and I became a state ward."

He lived in a permanent foster home with a family of five for 11 years. He recalls the time being tense and the family full of rage. He would be woken up in the middle of the night and told to pack his bags and wait at the end of his bed in late hours of the night for his foster mother to decide his fate of being homeless.

"I was more of a tenant than a child," said Bridge, "I was reminded that I was a child whose mother had failed him." He took the $300 in his pocket and took the road to college in Connecticut and proceeded to be a Harvard Law Graduate, a face in that small percentage. At the age of 20, he awoke to find a lump in his throat and later finds out that it was lymphoma cancer.

He decided to make the call to his foster family and give them the news to only realize they were "too busy" to take the call. "They told me they couldn't take the call because they were eating," said Bridge, "Most people have someone to take that call or to get advice from, I didn't have that."

Bridge is not married but has an English Setter by the name of "Bean." The current relationship with his 59-year-old mother consists of visits three to four times a year. He claims she is very quiet and replies with a majority of yes or no answers.

Bridge is a lawyer for the state of California and stands to change the way the foster care system works. "I have very good friends, and I am very fortunate professionally," said Bridge, "I was a really resilient little boy with an extraordinary level of strength."

Students could, or anyone for that matter, have opportunities to take their part in this change. The national Center for Addiction and Substance Abuse, CASA, is a program that aids in helping children who are homeless that with specific needs such as getting them a pair of glasses or helping them with homework.

If students want to go right to the problem, Bridge encourages students to contact their legislators to ask what they as individuals are doing directly to fix the problems in the system. Bridge gave his encouragement to children and strength to progress and find their way. "Even in quiet, sometimes a boy can still find his way," he said.

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