Marcelle's out of home care experience, and the Raising Expectations program, is driving her new career

Having entered care in Ballarat at the age of 11, Marcelle moved around various placements with extended family and family friends until she was placed in the permanent care of a distant relative where she stayed until she was 18.

That disruption impacted her education, motivation and sense of self, as it does many other children who enter care.

"Entering care and engaging with child protection affected my identity, my confidence, my focus, and my engagement with school. This affected my studies for a few years," she said.

"There were times I struggled with my behaviour and engagement with school and things like that. There's a whole heap of feelings that come with being in care that are not always so easy to articulate.

"The instability and change [of care] felt chaotic at times, and I struggled to understand the importance of school. Sometimes I felt stigmatised, and my behaviour, and therefore my grades, suffered as a result.", she said.

These are common feelings among young people in care, and as a result few go on to post-secondary education. Many also report feeling people's expectations of them are lower because of their experience of care.

The Raising Expectations project is supporting young people who have been in care, including Marcelle, to undertake post-secondary education through partnerships with TAFE and Federation, Latrobe and Swinburne universities.

Marcelle is now in her third year of a double degree in law and arts at Latrobe University.

"My end goal has shifted a couple of times, but at the core of what I want to do with my life it would have to be something to do with my community and putting my energy into areas I'm really passionate about, which most of all is people and making sure they are supported and can have the best life possible," she said.

"The law interacts with everyone's lives. It underpins all of the policy and procedure that surrounds so many systems and I like that you can advocate and help people through those systems and maybe change policy or help people get in to a better, more positive situation."

Marcelle said she had experience with the legal system when she was younger, and it felt impersonal, distant, complicated and stressful.

"That motivates me to try to do a really good job in this area and make people feel heard and safe."

Marcelle realises the strong support network she had around her as she completed secondary school was not something many other care leavers experience.

"I was lucky to have the support network I did during my placement. It was largely thanks to this support - from family, teachers, and friends - that I was able to focus on finishing my VCE in year 12."

When the Raising Expectations program began in late 2015, there were just 43 care-experienced students at partner universities. Last year there were 670 across TAFE and university.

Centre for Excellence in Child and Family Welfare chief executive Deb Tsorbaris said five to 10 years ago there were low expectations of educational outcomes for children in care but mindsets had changed.

And she hopes the program will increase in the next few years to partner with more universities.

She said many care leavers who had been part of Raising Expectations had gone on to "helping professions" such as nursing and teaching.

"It's a cross section but I have met graduate nurses and teachers in this program and you do hear from those kids that have been in care who go into helping professions partly because they have got lived experience," Ms Tsorbaris said.

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Having a regional partner such as Federation University also helps more young people who have been in care to continue on to post-secondary studies.

"We are making sure we are working with regional and rural campuses because we are wanting to make sure care leaver students don't need to move from their community and can work in their community once they are finished," she said. "A lot of these candidates are are supported by their community."

February 17 was World Care Day, a day to celebrate the achievements of children and young people who have been in care.

"We don't get to celebrate young people who have been in care very often. We are all just trying to improve the system but Care Day celebrates the strength and power of young people who are in and leave care, and we are really thinking about education on Care Day and the futures of those young people," Ms Tsorbaris said.

On an average day, there are nearly 10,000 Victorian children and young people in the out-of-home care system.

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