Our Next Step Mentors are current MTSU students who will help guide Next Step participants through their time at MTSU.

Our Mentors:

Emily Hartman entered foster care in Clarksville, TN, at the age of sixteen. Over the next year, she spent time in three foster homes before being reunited with her family and living independently. Currently, she is involved with Youth Village’s Scholars program, and volunteers her time by sharing her foster care experiences with foster care advocacy groups and lawmakers. After a difficult first semester, Emily knows how tough adjusting to college life can be and the unique hurdles that current and former foster youth can face in their journey. She hopes to use her experiences to help others thrive and find their place at MTSU. Emily is a senior Biology and Psychology major, and hopes to go to Physician Assistant school after graduation.

Tamara Milford entered into foster care at the age of fifteen in her hometown of Nashville, TN. She was placed into care after the death of her mother in 2012. After the death of her mother, Tamara stayed in a single parent foster home until 2015. She was then placed into another foster home and was adopted a year later. She says being adopted has been the best experience she could have ever asked for. She now has a family, since the death of her mother, to support and love her for the rest of her life. Tamara believes that every youth in foster care deserves the opportunity to have a positive experience, such as being adopted, like she had. She uses her story and experiences about foster care to inform others that foster care shouldn't be seen as a bad thing, and that just because you are in foster care doesn't mean you can't have the same opportunities as others. Currently Tamara is in college studying law. She hopes to become a district attorney in the near future.