Two years ago, Preston Massey's social worker asked him where he wanted to go to college, but Massey didn't know how to answer.

”I looked at her and I didn't understand -- I didn't even think I could graduate high school,” Massey said.

The Fortuna native has been in and out of foster care since he was very young. Initially placed into foster care because of domestic abuse in his home, Massey has had to overcome the pain of having an absentee father and a mother who abuses drugs and alcohol.

He and his counselor worked out a plan to get him through high school and make him competitive enough to get into colleges.

Now an 18-year-old Arcata High School senior, Massey not only plans to start at Humboldt State University in the fall, he spent last Wednesday with some of the most influential people in the state.

Massey, a Humboldt County Transition Age Youth Collaboration Youth Advisory Board member, was one of dozens of foster youth who attended the Take a Foster Youth to the Capitol event in Sacramento this week.

The collaboration is a program of the Humboldt County Department of Health and Human Services.

The event was meant to bring awareness to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's recent veto of $80 million in funding for Child Welfare Services.

The funding would have been matched with $53 million from the federal government.

”It was a chance to see the other side of the spectrum,” Massey said about the chance to shadow Assemblyman Wesley Chesbro for the day. In addition to an Assembly floor tour with other Humboldt County foster youth who made the trip, Massey watched the Arcata Democrat and chair of the Joint Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture facilitate the passing of a bill concerning soil and compost.

”It was really amazing,” Chesbro said of Massey's visit. “I'm not sure who gained more -- Preston or me.”

Chesbro said Massey helped him to better understand the challenges foster youth face.

During Massey's visit, the budget Subcommittee on Health and Human Services voted unanimously to restore the $133 million Child Welfare Services funding to the budget.

Rochelle Trochtenberg, the Humboldt County youth collaboration's organizer, said the event made a big impact on the Humboldt County youth who attended the meeting and watched their activism in action. She said many felt their testimony helped sway even members of the subcommittee who might have been reluctant, including two Republican members.

Chesbro said the bipartisan support for the funding only further indicates the governor's lack of understanding about the importance of the foster care system.

”We balanced the budget without cutting foster youth services last year and I think it was shameful for the governor to cut it from such a vulnerable population,” he said.

The budget will go back before the governor this summer, when he will have the chance to veto it again.

”If he does that we will continue to fight and come together to have that restored,” Trochtenberg said. “It's just simply bad practice for the state of California to not invest in its future. It just doesn't make any sense. It will cost California more money both now and long term.”

The cut in funding would mean Humboldt County youth would no longer have access to the independent living skills program, which helps foster youth ages 16 to 21 with job skills, housing, budgeting and academic planning.

”The independent living skills, in some ways, serves the youth by helping them prepare for adult life just like parents do,” Trochtenberg said. She said cutting the program means more youth homelessness, a higher incarceration rate and a lower graduation rate.

In addition, the funding would be cut for emergency response services and family maintenance and reunification services.

Trochtenberg said Massey is an example of how Child Welfare Services can change the course of a child's life. In addition to being a youth activist, Massey is beating the odds. Foster children have about a 50 percent high school graduation rate.

”When I met Preston he was about 15 and he was really disengaged from school,” she said. “I've seen him grow and mature. He's one of the very few foster youth who will graduate high school and will attend a university.”

Massey -- who benefits from the independent living program, and also works in addition to going to school and being active in his community -- said he hopes he brought a message to the Capitol.

”Growing up in foster care is a really difficult road, because you're jumping around different homes and you're basically raising yourself as you go along,” he said. “I want to make sure my experience in foster care isn't translated back to future foster children.”

Chesbro said he was so impressed by Massey that he offered Massey an internship at his Humboldt County office.

”I think he could go a long way if we can help him in his pathway,” Chesbro said. “He's going to make a great difference in this world.”

Donna Tam can be reached at 441-0532 or dtam@times-standard.com.