Lucy Johnston-Walsh featured in PennStater article

CARLISLE, PA—The PennStater, the magazine of the Penn State Alumni Association, recently featured Professor Lucy Johnston-Walsh ’97 in a story about the Fostering Lions Program, which has helped nearly 200 students from foster care manage the challenges of college life.

Johnston-Walsh, director of the Children’s Advocacy Clinic (CAC) and the Center on Children and the Law, and late colleague Gary Shuey, who served as CAC’s social work supervisor, inaugurated the program, which was initially called the Guardian Scholars Program.

Johnston-Walsh noted that education for many children in the foster care system is disrupted because they frequently move. Foster children face many challenges throughout their education, and college preparedness can be a struggle. After enrolling in higher education programs, the challenges continue unless adequate supports are put in place, Johnston-Walsh says. “I’ve had clients who got accepted to college but then couldn’t go because they couldn’t pay the deposit, or they didn’t have money for textbooks.”

You can read the full story by clicking here.

Lucy Johnston-Walsh is an associate professor of law and founding director of the Dickinson Law Children’s Advocacy Clinic. She is also the associate dean for experiential education. Professor Johnston-Walsh’s research, teaching, and service focus on juvenile law, specifically the legal challenges for youth involved in the foster care system. She supervises law students in the legal representation of youth involved in the dependency system, and her scholarship directly relates to systemic issues presented through the clinic cases, as well as interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of child advocacy. Her recent scholarship has been published in both medical journals and law reviews, including articles in Seton Hall Law Review, Fordham Urban Law Review and University of Pennsylvania Journal of Law and Public Affairs.