Sade Daniels stared at the outline of her silhouette on the cover of The Chronicle’s Sunday Insight section. She continued to look at it without saying a word, or even turning the page to read what was inside. When she finally spoke, she offered only this: “I look so sad.”

That was nearly 12 years ago.

At the time, she was 17 years old, and she was playing a numbers game that didn’t add up. Four years in the foster care system. Seven different homes. And the scariest number of all: 18. That was the birthday on which she would officially age out of the foster care system — and though it was deeply flawed, it was the only system she knew.

It didn’t help that state statistics painted a bleak picture: Nearly a third of foster care children would become homeless within the first year after aging out. Fifty percent would become unemployed. Fewer than 20 percent would enroll in college — and only about 3 percent would graduate. If she looked sad, she had good reason.

These days, Daniels is playing a different numbers game: two college degrees, three jobs, 67,000 words for a novel she’s working on. And one goal: to change the foster care system from within. She didn’t just beat the odds — she really beat the odds.

Back to Gallery Once a foster child herself, now an advocate for others... 4 1 of 4 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 2 of 4 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 3 of 4 Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle 4 of 4 Photo: PAUL CHINN, SFC







“I still can’t believe it,” she said, sipping her favorite drink inside Pinole’s Tropical Smoothie Cafe, a place that reminds her of her undergraduate days at Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. She came to the college after transferring from Clark Atlanta University in Georgia, seeking a more intimate setting for her education. “Clark Atlanta was a big place, and it was easy to fall through the cracks,” she said. It was a recurring pattern in her life that she was determined to break.

Luckily, Daniels remembered an email that a writer forwarded to her after the article about her ran in The Chronicle. Walter M. Kimbrough, then-president of Philander Smith College, was moved by her story and invited her to enroll at the college. “I emailed him back, and that’s how I ended up at Philander,” she said. It was during the transition between schools in 2008, however, that Daniels experienced her worst fear: homelessness.

“There was a program that was supposed to offer summer housing for former foster-care children in the Bay Area, but when I came back, it wasn’t available,” she said. She ended up at Brookside Shelter in Richmond, which caused a host of deep-seated fears to surface. “This is where I started in foster care,” she said. “I was abandoned in a homeless shelter by my mother. I almost didn’t go back to school after that. Being there after everything I did — going to college, working — just told me that obviously this was my life.”

Daniel Manske, one of Daniels’ high school teachers from Sojourner Truth Academy in Oakland, unknowingly persuaded her to brush off her dire predictions. “I just kept hearing his voice saying, ‘This isn’t the end. Go back.’’’ Not only did Daniels start her first year at Philander that fall, she excelled and broke out of her comfort zone, the confines of which she had built for mere survival in the system. Among her extracurricular activities: serving as the national president for the United Negro College Fund’s National Pre-Alumni Council; pledging Delta Sigma Theta Sorority; and entering and winning the Beta Chi Chapter’s “Miss Black and Gold 2012 Pageant.”

“These are things I would have never done,” she said. “I was so shy.” She attributes a large part of her growth to the fact that both Clark and Philander are historically black colleges. And for an African American student brought up in foster care, this filled a crucial void. “One of the most important things to me was to connect to my history and culture. This means so much to someone who grows up in the system and has no roots. HBCs are important for black people in foster care. It connects us to who we are, our being.”

After graduating in 2012, Daniels returned to the Bay Area and began working at MISSSEY (Motivating, Inspiring, Supporting & Serving Sexually Exploited Youth) — a cause that she felt passionate about, having witnessed girls in the foster care system who were victims of sexual abuse and human trafficking. She was getting more invitations to speak at events. She also started working for the California Youth Connection, where she was asked to work on policy reports.

“My favorite part was speaking to young people,” she said. “It’s important for me to tell them that they can make it. My mom was an addict. I came from nothing. I had to show them that they could make it, too.” And because of her work experience, Daniels quickly realized that she was able to affect the lives not only of foster children, but of practitioners and social workers as well. “I had both audiences listening to me because I was credentialed to speak from both sides.”

For a majority of foster children, this rare success story was enough for a happy ending. But for Daniels, it wasn’t enough to help her reach her ultimate goal — changing the foster-care system.

“I knew that I could not get a seat at the table without more education,” she said. In 2015, she applied for admission to the master of social welfare program at UC Berkeley — and to her surprise, she was accepted. “I was happy, but then I learned that it was among the Top 10 in social programs in the country. Once I realized this, I got scared.”

Daniels also felt culture shock coming from a black college to a campus where she barely saw any African Americans. But Daniels was familiar with being on the outside, fighting her way in. “What I learned was that I had a lot to contribute,” she said. “I went in thinking I was a novice, but I had a huge impact on the program because I have vast knowledge on the issue. I had done more than live the life of a foster child. I had been working nonstop since my teens. I worked on policy and curriculum development. No one could tell me I didn’t know this.”

Daniels graduated on May 14, Mother’s Day, with her mother in the audience. Her classmates voted to have her speak at the graduation. She was the only speaker who got a standing ovation that day. She’s received an offer to work as an associate governmental program analyst for the state’s Office of the Ombudsman for Foster Care in Sacramento. Here, she hopes to make a difference in our state’s foster-care system, starting with improvements to AB12, landmark legislation that extended foster care until the age of 21. It was signed into law in September 2010.

“I believe in it. However, the requirements can sometimes weed out young people with more extensive needs and who’ve had more stifled progress with employment and education. As we extend the time of foster care, we also need to evaluate quality and efficiency of services,” she explained.

She speaks now with an air of authority, understanding the stakes and the unique role she now plays. “My advice for others in the system now is to keep dreaming. Stay steadfast in what that vision looks like. It’s hard when you have nothing, but my dreams are what kept me fighting.”

Pati Poblete is a former Chronicle editorial writer. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at http://bit.ly/SFChronicleletters

Editorials about Sade Daniels and foster care

Read some of Daniels’ back story and a few of her poems:

“No Refuge: How California is failing its foster children,” Sept. 11, 2005, http://bit.ly/2rCkXpQ

“Sade’s story — lessons for all,” Aug. 13, 2006, http://bit.ly/2rMBzJZ

“Against the Odds/ Sade’s mission — college bound,” June 3, 2007, http://bit.ly/2sgSc2V

“Sade’s story: An update,” Jan. 2, 2008, http://bit.ly/2rWMLpg