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While thumbing through school reports, court cases and social workers’ notes, Garry Larson, now 23, saw he was considered an insufficient student at age 7.

Garry and his siblings, Crystal and Michael Larson, grew up in the foster care system through their middle school years.

“When kids are on survival mode, academics do not come first,” said Garry Larson. “And I think to see the trajectory where I was headed, without the people in my life who helped me, that’s exactly what I was just going to be as a human being — just insufficient.”

The social workers who documented “how many problems I had” were those who would eventually find skills in Garry Larson that he couldn’t yet see.

Today, he is a crisis counselor and on track to get his bachelor’s degree from Western Washington University. Michael Larson, 22, is a Gonzaga alum. Crystal Larson, 20, is an engineering technician for Facebook parent company Meta and attending Edmonds College, on her way to becoming an aerospace engineer. She starts at Wipro Givon, an aerospace company, as a junior engineer later this month.