Rome graduate, artist and foster child hopes to 'bring people together' with creativity

The Class of 2022 will say farewell to a high school career that included nearly two years under the cloud of a global  pandemic. While COVID-19 may have marred some of their high school experience, this class has grit and they have made it to the finish line. As members of the graduating class prepare to move on to the next chapter in their lives, the Observer-Dispatch sat down with several seniors across the Mohawk Valley. They offered advice for their fellow students, shared their college and career goals and more. Congratulations to the Class of 2022.

Ryan Francis Galicia, 18, is creating a new identity for himself.

It starts with graduation from Rome Free Academy later this month followed by a move into the dorms at Mohawk Valley Community College, where he’ll study digital animation.

“I never thought I’d be able to graduate,” said Galicia, who had to fight through algebra and other subjects after not receiving any schooling between ages 13 and 16.

Then there’s his name; it’s not legally his quite yet, but he’s waiting for a legal request to go through.

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The new name marks so much that has changed for him — adoption as an infant from his native Guatemala, surviving childhood trauma and the gender affirming steps he has taken in the past year.

But the name also proclaims a bond to the happy parts of his past. Francis was his late adoptive father’s name and Galicia is the birth surname of his brother, 21, who was adopted from Guatemala at age 4.

Galicia seems a bit astonished by all these changes, never having expected to find the support and encouragement he needed to make them happen.

“Ryan ranks up there with one of the most … resilient people that I have ever met,” said Michele Lasher, foster care clinical manager for The House of the Good Shepherd in Utica, where she’s worked for 23 years. “I remember Ryan walking into this building and being this very withdrawn and reserved teenager.”

But he ran with every challenge and made “the most amazing strides” to become an amazing young adult, she said.

Using art to bring people together

Galicia’s troubles began when he was 9 or 10 and his father died. His family moved to Rome, and his mother's physical and mental health deteriorated. When he was 13, Galicia said his mother stopped home-schooling him and he was verbally and emotionally abused.

It was during that time that he discovered the life-changing power of art to tell stories and create worlds.

"In my eyes, I see creativity as a way to bring people together,” Galicia said. “I dream big. So I want to try making an impact on this nation with my creativity.”

At 16, someone whom Galicia did not name helped him to see that his home life was not OK, and the mother of two of his friends called the police on his behalf, a call that brought a social worker to Galicia’s home.

For the first time, he shared his whole story with someone, "and he believed me," Galicia said.

That ride to foster care changed everything.

“I became a person who didn’t exist, and when I got in the car, I felt relief,” he said, “because I couldn’t be a lie any more. I could be a truth, an actual person.”

'I've thrived being in foster care'

Galicia eventually landed with Joanne Fox, a 30-year foster mother with two other foster children in her Oneida home (as well as a 23-year-old former foster child who aged out of the system).

When Galicia arrived, they talked for hours. Fox told him that the past was past and the future was something they’d work out together. She has given Galicia the security, understanding and love to figure out who and what he’ll be in that future.

Galicia discusses his past openly, but carefully, trying to find the right words to describe events and his feelings without being unfair or unnecessarily hurtful.

He hints at deeper wounds that need healing, but focuses on what brings him joy: the cats and dogs in his foster home, his relationship with Fox, his part-time job at Oneida Health, the characters he plays in his weekly game of Dungeons & Dragons with friends, discovering a diverse community in high school, advocating for a better world and, of course, art, art and art.

The foster care system gets a lot of criticism, but it’s underrated, Galicia said.

“I’ve thrived being in foster care,” he noted.

Amy Roth covers issues that affect families for the Observer-Dispatch. Email Amy Roth at aroth@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Observer-Dispatch: Rome Free Academy graduate crafts a new life with foster care and art