Ryan Dollinger was born in March of 1987. He entered foster care in 1999. Child Protective Services placed him at an emergency shelter in Houston called Jaime's House.

"I was the one that called CPS, and I said, 'You know, this isn't the best thing for me and I told them where they needed to go to find it,' and they found it," Ryan said.

Ryan said the situation was traumatic.

"No one ever explains to you what's happening, at least not in my case, and you're scared. You're 11 years old, and with strangers, you're just like OK. In a way, you want to know what you did wrong. In a way, you want to know what's next," Ryan said.

Ryan recalled his experience at Jaime's house.

"I remember we were in the van and one of the kids didn't do what he wanted. I remember he turned around and punched him, like just swelled him. I turned around and was like, OK. I remember being a quiet kid, taking it in, trying to understand it," he said.

In 2000, CPS moved Ryan to Pathfinders, a residential treatment center in Dripping Springs.

"We were made to work a lot. I remember if you got in trouble, you got a mark, and three marks equaled one hour of work. Work could be anything from cutting wood to mowing the grass. We were forced to use the restroom outside. There was a five-gallon bucket on top of a pipe that went into the ground, and that's where we used the restroom. There were three walls around it," Ryan said.

Ryan said he wishes he could do something about the center.

"Now that I know what you're supposed to live like, it makes me mad. Not angry to the point of where you can't function, but a point where you know this place is still open, and you want to do something. It really kind of hurts in a way, because why would you make someone else live that way? How could you make children, who by no fault of their own are in their system, run around and live like in a third-world country?" Ryan said.

In 2002, CPS moved Ryan to a foster home in Orange, and in 2005, Ryan aged out of foster care.

"Some people may look at me and say, 'We did really good.' But how many other Ryan Dollingers are out there that are homeless or going hungry, or because you didn't take the time to teach them job skills? How many kids not going to college because no one told them they could, or didn't finish high school because no one pushed them to? Thousands," Ryan said.

In 2007, Ryan began classes at Lamar University.

Jaime's shelter is now closed due to safety violations.