Although many kinship and foster youths have clear academic ambitions during high school, research indicates that many do not graduate high school, and fewer complete a college degree compared to non-foster youth. The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study is to explore and advance an understanding of the experiences that influence former foster and kinship youth to enroll in post-secondary education. For this study, former foster and kinship youth are characterized as youth who resided in a foster care or kinship care setting and were enrolled in a post-secondary institution. This phenomenological study relied on a series of two individual interviews conducted through Zoom, including written and visual elicitation. Through purposeful sampling in combination with snowball sampling, five former foster and kinship students articulated their lived experiences. The primary research question is to understand what lived experiences influence former foster and kinship youth to pursue post-secondary education. The subset of research questions investigates the environmental factors through their stories within Dr. Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory framework. The study discovered that former foster and kinship youth's motivation to attend a community college or university was related to: (a) social supports; (b) not repeating family history; (c) being resilient and motivated; and (d) fulfilling their educational goals to then have a successful career. The major themes that developed from the data include: 1) educational challenges; 2) emotional conflict; 3) social supports; 4) motivation; 5) financial need; 6) consistency and stability; and 7) resiliency. The findings of this study illuminated ways in which children and youth services, private service providers, secondary schools and higher education systems could increase social, mental, and financial support for foster and kinship youth from their lived experiences. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]