Ella Bat-Ami

Ella is the founder of Fostering Excellence, an organization dedicated to securing rights and expanding educational opportunities for youth in Tennessee’s foster care system.

Ella’s commitment to this work is personal. She aged out of foster care on her 18th birthday after years of instability. When she left, she felt she couldn’t abandon the foster sisters she loved. Determined to change the system from the outside, Ella wrote the Tennessee Foster Youth Bill of Rights—researching and drafting the legislation herself, securing a legislative sponsor, testifying through the committee process, and resisting efforts to weaken it into a nonbinding resolution. The bill passed in April 2025, establishing fundamental rights for nearly 9,000 foster youth in Tennessee.

With rights secured, Ella turned her focus to education. Fostering Excellence now mentors foster youth through the college application process, matching them with foster-friendly universities that offer scholarships. Ella has also built a Foster Student Union at her own university, creating peer community, mentorship pathways, and practical support like admissions coaching and housing navigation.

It is the responsibility of each person to identify what they can do to make the world a better place, and to wholeheartedly follow that path.

Person stands on a stone terrace between tall columns with a city skyline visible in the background.

Fostering Excellence

A nonprofit that advocates for foster youth rights and works to close the educational gap for youth aging out of Tennessee’s foster care system.

Two people talk indoors as sunlight creates bright diagonal patterns across the wall behind them.

2026 Award Recipient

EllaBat-Ami

It is the responsibility of each person to identify what they can do to make the world a better place, and to wholeheartedly follow that path.

Ella Bat-Ami

Fostering Excellence