INDIANAPOLIS — Philomena Busch’s bright blue eyes twinkle as she talks about the future.
She’ll be a nurse, she said. One trained to interpret for the deaf and non-English speakers who come into whichever hospital she ends up working for. She wants to help people, she said. To make them feel safe and cared for.
It took her awhile to find that feeling, the 18-year-old admits. And now that she has it, she wants to share it with whomever she can.
Busch, a recent graduate of Mt. Vernon High School, spent the four years of her high school career in foster care. She’s one of hundreds of Hoosier teens who will age out of the system this year.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryThis week, she and a dozen others like her were recognized by state leaders for having overcome an obstacle many never have to face.
Fourteen foster care graduates from across the state were invited to the Lucas Estate in Indianapolis for a dinner this week. Each was allowed to invite a group of loved ones to celebrate with them. There, they visited with their friends, case workers and folks who started off as strangers but became their families.
Busch and her foster family were among the crowd, laughing and sharing stories of their time together.
Having Busch as part of their family has been a joy, said Tonya Battee of McCordsville, Busch’s foster mother.
Busch is a hardworking, passionate and fun-loving young woman, Battee said. She’s never let the tougher moments of her life get in the way or keep her from achieving her goals.
Busch first entered foster care on April 9, 2015 after her family found itself tangled in the court system, she said.
She and her younger sister moved in with a family living in the Mt. Vernon Schools district.
It was a difficult adjustment, Busch said. She found herself in a new city, a new home, a new school, torn from her biological family, all in the middle of her freshman year.
But she learned to love Mt. Vernon, its teachers and the toughness of its curriculum, she said. There, she’d found herself surrounded by people who pushed her to be better than she was, she said.
Busch’s guidance counselor at the high school encouraged her to take on an academic-honors course load, which required her to earn more credits than other students while taking more difficult classes.
She was smart, the guidance counselor told her over and over. She could do this.
But as she prepared to start her junior year, she learned her initial foster family would be moving out of state, which meant she and her sister would move also.
The idea of moving away from Mt. Vernon, away from all the friends she’d made, upset her. So, she contacted the Battees — a friend and classmate of hers was living with the couple in foster care at the time and always spoke highly of them — and begged Tonya Battee and her husband, Terence, to take her and her little sister in.
They happily obliged, eager to let the two girls share their home, to allow them to finish high school with the friends and teachers they loved, Tonya Battee said.
Reinvigorated, Busch loaded up on challenging courses for her junior and senior years. She took Spanish, American Sign Language and psychology along with the science, English and math courses she was required to complete. She also took a full-time job at a restaurant, on top of mountains of paperwork — journals and monthly check-up letters — the state requires her and all other kids in foster care to complete.
Somehow, she still managed to keep her room clean, Tonya Battee joked.
Busch set her sights on the University of Southern Indiana, where she plans to study nursing and an array of foreign languages. Her goal is to work in a hospital, caring for patients and serving as an interpreter for those who can’t communicate with their doctors.
Busch received her academic-honors diploma at the end of May, when she and the rest of Mt. Vernon’s Class of 2018 graduated.
It was tough at times, she said; but she feels that compared to some others who have navigated foster care in high school, she had it easy.
So far this year, more than 16,000 Indiana kids have been in foster care, according to records kept by the Indiana Department of Child Services. They are young people, torn from their families because of poor circumstances or their parents’ mistakes. They’re shuffled from house to house, sometimes with little notice. Some never find a permanent home.
Busch was one of the lucky ones, she said.
She and her sister have lived in just two foster homes during their time in the system. And in the Battees, they found a family, a place and people they’ll be connected with forever.
Busch’s graduation from high school means she’s now aged out of the foster care system, and she loses access to many state-offered services, her family says. Some, like her medical insurance, college tuition assistance and certain counseling, will still be available as she begins college and will stay in place until she turns 20.
Indiana is one of 25 states that offers some sort of extension to foster care that can help ease at-risk youth into adulthood, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Busch said she plans to take advantage of some of those collaborative care options as she begins her college journey.