La Sierra launches endowment to fund debt-free college for foster youth

The fundraising launch garnered approximately $70,000 toward a $2 million goal for the new Home@LaSierra Endowment. A gala is planned for October 14, 2026, at the Riverside Convention Center with additional fundraising efforts slated during the interim.

The November 13 event titled “An Autumn Night’s Reade” featured 16 university and community leaders and supporters reading and reciting their favorite stories and poetry. For the occasion, the conference center was transformed into an intimate space partitioned with draping fabric, fall décor, twinkle lights and a colorful autumn scenery backdrop. 

“Were it not for someone like you who showed up and introduced this concept to me, I would not be what I am today." – La Sierra University President Christon Arthur

“I was not always at home on a university campus,” said La Sierra University President Christon Arthur in the evening’s opening remarks. “After high school, I did not go to college. Not because I wasn’t prepared academically. I did not go to college because I did not know that I could. At home, nobody talked about going to college. It never came up.” 

Arthur worked for several years before a church pastor compelled him to fill out a college application. To his surprise, the application was accepted and months later he enrolled in the small liberal arts college in the Caribbean which is similar to La Sierra University. 

“Were it not for someone like you who showed up and introduced this concept to me, I would not be what I am today,” Arthur said to the audience. “I can look back at my life and I can see when my life took a turn for the better.”

Michelle Wohl, deputy director of the Riverside County Department of Public Social Services described the relationship between the university and the county, and discussed the challenges facing foster youth, including those who are eligible for the state’s extended foster program that allows them to remain in foster care under certain conditions until age 21. 

There is no state budget earmarked for services for the extended foster care program, she said. Many young people who age out of the system experience incarceration, unplanned pregnancy, homelessness, she said.

“By this university saying we want this campus to be home, you all can support educationally that youth being able to attend a private school,” she said. “Here on campus at La Sierra they can be at home. And so your contribution, your support, [including prayers], you can change a life and you can change the next generation.”

The impact of story

The evening’s presenters read and recited from oral stories, books, poetry, lyrics, and personal writings.

Arthur led the night’s performances with the telling of a West Indian folktale passed down from Africa’s Ashanti tribe and told over generations around village campfires. The story’s hero is a spider named Anansi, an infamous trickster who claimed that a tiger was his father’s horse. “This made the tiger very angry,” said Arthur, telling the story. The tiger insisted that Anansi go with him into a nearby village and confess to everyone that he, the tiger, was not really Anansi’s father’s riding horse. Anansi, however, feigned illness saying he as too weak and sickly to walk with the tiger. 

In the end, the frustrated tiger insisted that Anansi put saddle and bridle on him and ride into the village to deliver the message. As they got close, Anansi dug into the tiger’s sides with his boot spurs and the tiger shot down the road while Anansi yelled, “See I told you Tiger is my father’s riding horse. But not only is Tiger my father’s riding horse, Tiger is my riding horse, too.”

Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson read two short poems by nature writer Mary Oliver and by former U. S. poet laureate, W. S. Merwin.

Lock Dawson noted to the audience her love of nature and role as a former national park ranger before reading Oliver’s “Wild Geese” which presents the world and the realm of the imagination as a haven. “Whoever you are, no matter how lonely, the world offers itself to your imagination, calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -- over and over, announcing your place in the family of things,” Lock Dawson read. 

She then read Merwin’s “To Paula in Late Spring,” a tribute to the poet's late wife.

Bradford C. Newton, president of the Pacific Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists read an excerpt from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famed “I Have a Dream” speech. He led with a memory of a trip he and his wife made to Washington D.C. and the Lincoln Memorial. King delivered his speech in 1963 from the memorial steps during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

“With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood,” Newton read. “With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.”

The Pacific Union Conference contributed $10,000 as a Visionary sponsor of the Home@LaSierra endowment and fundraiser.

Other readers included former Riverside County Superior Court Judge Mark E. Johnson, a retired U.S. Army colonel who read an excerpt from his own novel, “Scars & Strife”; Wohl who read from Dr. Seuss’s “Oh, the Places You’ll Go”: Chris Oberg, chief executive officer of Path of Life Ministries reading from Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings”; Nicholas Adcock, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Riverside Chambers of Commerce who read from Anton Mryer “Once an Eagle”; Dr. Winona Howe, La Sierra University emeritus English professor and author who read from her book, “Welcome to the Penniman Menagerie”;  Lou Monville, senior vice president of the Raincross Corporate Group reading from a Winston Churchill speech; Cheryl-Marie Hansberger, chief executive officer of Family Service Association read a piece titled “Passive Renewal”; La Sierra alumnus Andrew Walcker, president of Overland Development Company read from President Theodore Roosevelt’s speech “Citizenship of a Republic”; and Patty Cardenas, assistant director for the division of victim services with the Riverside County District Attorney’s office. She delivered her personal reflections on her work on behalf crime victims.

A quartet of La Sierra alumni and friends––Iki Taimi, lead pastor, La Sierra University Church, Steve Hemenway, La Sierra University chief financial officer and Riverside Ward 7 Councilmember, Donovan Childs, pastor, Ephesus SDA Church, and Kevin Straine, business development manager at the Zapara School of Business––gave a group read and musical performance on the theme of love and friendship. The performance included scripture, song excerpts from Burt Bacharach and the Beatles, an excerpt from James Baldwin, lyrics by Pulitzer Prize-winning song writer and rap artist Kendrick Lamar.

“It’s always been with the simple hope that it would remind people that they can make a really big difference just by being one good person in someone’s life.” – Carla Lidner Baum

Carla Lidner Baum, La Sierra alumnus, dentist, community volunteer and key organizer of the Home@LaSierra initiative read in closing a reflection about her experiences as a college student at La Sierra University. She described the care given by former religion professor Baily Gillespie in supporting and nurturing her as an inexperienced teaching assistant and in spite of her youthful mistakes. “When I’ve read it, it’s always been with the simple hope that it would remind people that they can make a really big difference just by being one good person in someone’s life,” she said.

“You are already the kinds of people who make a difference in many, many lives,” she said to the audience. “And tonight you’re here to support giving foster youth an opportunity to have an actual home here at this wonderful university.”

Lock Dawson and the city of Riverside have worked to mitigate homelessness, especially among young people. The city announced in March the elimination of youth homelessness for people ages 18 – 24 through its Challenge to End Youth Homelessness campaign. Initiated in 2023, the objective of ‘functional zero’ for youth homelessness was achieved by increasing shelter beds, through housing partnerships, nonprofit collaborations and other strategic activities. As a result of these efforts, 94 young people were housed between 2023 and 2025.

“The Home@LaSierra Endowment represents the kind of comprehensive support that truly moves the needle for our most vulnerable youth,” Lock Dawson said. “Riverside has seen firsthand what can happen when we invest in young people through our efforts to end youth homelessness. This endowment builds on that momentum by ensuring foster youth aging out of the system have access not only to housing, but also to the education that opens doors to a brighter future.”