LaToya Steadman and Janisha Hamel huddle with their heads together, studying a brand-new college ID card.

"Oh, this is horrible, girl," Ms. Steadman complains about her own picture.

"You should see mine," Ms. Hamel says reassuringly.

It's an utterly ordinary conversation, a variation of which is taking place this week among college freshmen all over the country.

But there's been nothing ordinary about the path to college for Ms. Steadman or Ms. Hamel -- or 16 other graduates of local programs serving teenagers in Pennsylvania child welfare systems.

Out of 22 students graduating from the programs at Ward Home, 18 are going on to college. Given that half of teenagers in child welfare systems nationally don't graduate from high school, that success rate has stunned even the program's organizers.

"Oh my God, it's so far away from the norm for foster kids," said John Vinay, program director for the 103-year-old social service agency in Scott. "They really don't have the support network that a typical teenager has. There are so many more obstacles."

As word of the program's success this year has gotten out, he's received inquiries from across the country, from as far away as Seattle.

One of the keys to getting Ward Home students into college, he said, was simply telling them that it was mandatory.

"When you give them a higher standard, they respond to it," he said. "It's a paradigm shift."

For Ms. Steadman, who is attending Carlow University and plans to major in forensic science, college didn't always seem like a possibility. None of her five older brothers had gone to college, she said, and she'd been living in a series of foster homes since 1998, when she was removed from her drug-addicted mother and father.

But about two years ago, when she began living in a supervised independent living program at Ward Home, things started to change.

Her senior year, she said, she received almost all As at Peabody High School -- raising her once-mediocre 2.3 grade point average enough to graduate with honors. In no small measure, she credits her spot at Carlow to her life skills teachers in the Ward Independent Skills Enhancement program.

"They helped with anything and everything," she said. "I [knew] nothing. I didn't have anyone around to help me."

The goal of the WISE program is to help students develop all necessary social and life skills -- from saying "nice to meet you" after being introduced to someone to navigating a bus schedule to finding a job.

"If you don't know how to tie your shoe, we're going to do our best to teach you how to tie your shoe," said WISE program coordinator Heather Samuel.

In getting the students prepared for college, program officers helped with filling out applications and financial aid forms, of course, but also gave them "college kits" with a mattress pad, iron, shower caddy, and other dorm essentials.

"Everything that a parent would do is what we do," said Mr. Vinay.

In one case, that involved one employee driving a student all the way to Alabama State University in Montgomery, Ala., helping her move in, and driving back the next day.

Ward Home also helped the students find scholarship and stipend money. But even though all her expenses should be paid for her first year, it was hard for Ms. Steadman to swallow spending $236 on used books.

"One book was $86," she said. "I was about to cry."

Even though she's in college, Ms. Steadman will have contact at least once a week with her WISE life skills teacher. Her dream is to transfer eventually to Tuskegee University in Alabama, but she wasn't ready to leave Pittsburgh right away.

"I'm nervous," she said. "I'm scared to fail." Before classes started, she stayed home while her dorm-mates went out to a party, worried that she'd start to develop bad habits.

For Ms. Hamel, any nerves that she had about attending Clarion University have been calmed by a six-week intensive program that she attended on campus there this summer.

She came out of the program with credits for two courses -- and a 3.5 grade point average -- so she's confident that she can do the work required to earn a nursing degree.

She is keeping her same roommate from her summer program. Considering that she's lived in 17 different homes in her life, adjusting to new people isn't one of her worries.

"I have adapted to many different kinds of environments," said Ms. Hamel, who graduated from Carrick High School. "This is just another place."

Ms. Hamel credits Ward Home with helping her turn around a lifestyle she described as "rocky" and focus on her dream of going to college.

Of the eight of Ms. Hamel's 10 siblings who are still living, only one made it to college, she said, and he dropped out after a year and a half. Part of what has propelled her this far is "to prove others wrong" and to set an example for her nieces and nephews.

"It's exciting," she said, showing a wide smile. "I'm ready to really begin starting my life."