Media
Angela Hoffman-Cooper’s public scholarship and speaking engage audiences across education, child welfare, advocacy, and policy contexts, centering lived experience in foster care to inform more equitable systems and practices.
Selected Talks, Podcasts, Webinars, & Public Scholarship
At the 2018 NASPA Conference, Angela Hoffman-Cooper was selected to speak about her experience going From Foster Care to College: Finding a Family on Campus in SA Speaks, a TED Talk style presentation. She shares recommendations for how higher education and student affairs practitioners can improve support for students with experience in foster care and closes with a poem she wrote on the complexities of foster care experience.
College students with experiences in the foster care system are often not central to institutionalized support within student affairs and higher education. In this July 2021 Student Affairs NOW podcast, Dra. Susana Muñoz meets with Angela Hoffman-Cooper, Dr. Royel Johnson, and Kenyon Lee Whitman about ways higher education and student affairs can better support college students with foster care experiences.
In this video, Angela Hoffman-Cooper was a selected entry to the Association for Study of Higher Education Full Participation Video Challenge. Angela discusses barriers in higher education that students with experience in foster care face and opportunities for scholars to engage emancipatory research practices to support full participation in higher education.
In this webinar hosted by The Foster Scholars in June 2020, Angela along with the four other co-founders of The Foster Scholars, share about their research and scholarship, and the purpose of the Foster Scholars Community they developed. They reflect on their lived experience in foster care and offer advice for those seeking to be an ally or partner with students with experience in foster care.
Selected Articles & Features
December 2024
In the Colorado State University Source, Dr. Hoffman-Cooper reflects on her time in the Higher Education Leadership program centering the experiences of people with experience in foster care in higher education and shares the challenges and generational restoration she didn’t foresee."The faculty's belief in my potential and the scholar they saw me as, made this journey possible."
May 2022
HopeWell shares learnings from their event in which Angela was a featured panelist. "For youth experiencing foster care, the system is designed to keep them safe, not to ensure their educational success. Our panelists are striving to change that. More is required – more strategizing, more allies, more opportunities to ensure youth and young adults are "at risk for success" (a strengths-based reframe Angela offered).
December 2022
In this article in BestColleges by Matthew Arrojas, Angela reflects on how family privilege shows up in the college-going experiences of youth with experience in foster care."Each time a SEFC has to self-disclose their background, it reinforces the belief that they are 'abnormal.' Because, if they were normal, the processes would be in place already. If institutions rethink their services, it’ll benefit a lot of students."
December 2020
In this article, in the Colorado State University Source, Angela reflects on meeting Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw, a leading scholar of intersectionality – a concept that factors heavily in Hoffman-Cooper’s scholarship supporting students with experience in foster care. "There are all these outcomes that become coupled and layered on top of each other that disproportionately impact."
June 2020
In this ACPA blog post, Angela reflects on the history of Juneteenth and its meaning to her. "For me, Juneteenth is a day to reflect on our nation's history, a day to celebrate Black lives, a day to acknowledge, remember, learn, and take action - just as we have a responsibility to do everyday . . . How will I spend my day, and each day, and yet especially this day, directed toward racial justice? "
May 2018
In this blog post written for the NASPA Socioeconomic and Class Issues Knowledge Community, Angela describes the impact of asking someone where they're from when considering socioeconomic and class issues. Further, Angela shares her personal challenge in answering questions about her hometown as the result of frequent moves and experience in foster care.
“I would challenge us to view students with experience in foster care as not at risk—not at risk for incarceration, substance use, or teen pregnancy—but at risk of greatness. Rather than a deficit model, our students have learned how to navigate systems that were not made for them.”
— Angela Hoffman-Cooper, NASPA SA Speaks