Advocacy and Me: How it started! 

How can I change the world? Like many others, I have asked myself this question since I was little, but I never gave it much serious thought as I got older. After many years of just sitting back and experiencing the world around me, I realized that I couldn't change the world by just staying in my comfort zone as I had been doing for so long, and that's when I decided to begin my advocacy journey.

It all started with a mere discussion with my college's Fostering an Academic Successful Transition (FAST) program coordinator in early 2024. I expressed to her that I was extremely interested in becoming an advocate, I just didn’t know where to start. She was the best person I could’ve expressed my interest to as she had many resources she was able to connect me with. I didn't know how fast my life would change from that moment, but oh, it changed in the most wonderful way possible.

My first experience with advocacy was taking part in a focus group with a local youth organization that focused on expanding resources to foster families. This meeting took place in a small conference room at Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU). The focus group was supposed to be a half-hour, with approximately four or five students besides myself, to discuss additional resources for youth who were experiencing out-of-home placement and what they may need for them to feel strong, healthy, and supported. It ended up being the interviewer and me talking for an hour!

Just like with anything new, I was extremely nervous going into the focus group. It was my first time doing anything like it and it forced me to get out of the comfort zone that I had been living in for so long. Coming out of the focus group, I realized that advocacy was much easier than I ever could’ve imagined. I didn’t realize it before, but I was the subject expert on the topic being discussed because I lived through it. I was able to use my personal experiences to better answer the questions that the interviewer was asking me, experiences that I never realized could be of any relevance until that very moment.
In later months, I met many wonderful people who have helped to expand my advocacy journey in this new chapter of my life. My experience may not have been a grand entrance into public speaking that other people in the advocacy world may have had, but we all have to start somewhere.

About Rebecca: 

Rebecca Yager is a Tool Design Engineer at a carbide cutting tool manufacturer based out of Saginaw, Michigan. She is currently a student at Delta college pursuing her Associates in Manufacturing and Industrial Technology with the plans to transfer to SVSU in 2026 to pursue her Bachelors in Engineering Technology Management. One of her biggest hobbies is baking and she loves to compete in baking competitions in the tri city area every year.

Her journey into advocacy started quite recently, and she has grown to love public speaking when it comes to college access for youth with lived experience, or to advocate for improvements to the child welfare system. She hopes to use her experience to help improve the experience for youth that are currently within the child welfare system, and to those that will in the future.