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GREENSBORO - If everything goes according to plan, Allen Coltrane will graduate from N.C. A&T this December.

When he puts on his cap and gown and walks across the stage, Coltrane will have already beaten long odds: Only 13 percent of U.S. foster children go to college, and about half of them drop out in the first year, according to statistics from the Orphan Foundation of America.

But here in North Carolina, those bleak numbers could change for the better soon.

NC Reach, a first-of-its-kind program begun last February, offers kids who have aged out of foster care a chance to go to college debt-free and get mentoring help to continue their education.

"I'm lucky because I have a lot of mentors in my life already," said Coltrane, a 21-year-old English major. "Not everyone with my same background has those mentors, and someone like my (NC Reach) mentor can really help. ... We stay in touch and talk at least once a month. It does help me just to know I have that person there and I have accountability from that person."

Funded through the N.C. Department of Social Services and administered by the Orphan Foundation of America, NC Reach offers eligible foster youth and adoptees scholarships to the state's public universities and community colleges along with support to help them stay in school.

"It's not just, 'Here's a check, now go study,'" said Eileen McCaffrey, the foundation's executive director. "That would not succeed. ... Statistically, many of these kids flounder. They start school, they stop school. There needs to be a support system there to pick them up when they fall. It sort of catches them before they fall and embraces their potential."

Coltrane said he wishes the NC Reach program had been around when he started college. He made it on his own. Barely.

He finished the first semester with a B average, then struggled in the second semester. His grades plummeted. He didn't know where to turn. He thought about quitting.

"My freshman year was very difficult," Coltrane said. "... I didn't have that mentor, that person or organization backing me and encouraging me, teaching me about life in general."

Coltrane said his Christian faith and the state's Education and Training Voucher program helped him get back on track as a sophomore.

Then along came NC Reach.

"The program is tremendous," he said. "It's taken a lot of weight off my shoulders. ... I know there are some people who wouldn't know how they were going to get through (college financially) without this program."

Because he started school before NC Reach existed, Coltrane said he'll have some debt when he graduates. But it will be manageable.

McCaffrey said the nearly $700,000 in NC Reach scholarships awarded this year is an investment.

"This is the culmination of lots and lots of advocacy work of folks around the state," she said. "Without this sort of aid, these kids fall through the cracks and we lose all their potential. We invest all this effort into their growing up, and then just stop when they turn 18. With just a little more after that, we can invest in them and see them become young professionals.

"That's the real goal here, for them to continue transitioning to adulthood. The outcome is you will graduate ready to enter the work force."

Coltrane still has 11 months before graduation. An Orphan Foundation internship sent him to work last summer in Sen. Elizabeth Dole's Washington office, and it opened his eyes. He wants to open his own business someday. Or maybe get his master's and doctoral degrees and teach.

Whatever the future brings, he said he'll be ready.

Contact Jeff Mills at 373-7024 or jeff.mills@news-record.com