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Cal State East Bay Helps Former Foster Youth Graduate

Published

9 years ago

January 2, 2017

Tisha Ortiz chose Cal State East Bay sight unseen.

Unlike many of today’s college freshmen, the former foster youth didn’t tour campuses, compare dormitories or think about how far away she was moving from her native Southern California.

She simply chose the school that gave her the most financial aid, packed her belongings into a single suitcase and boarded a plane. That plane landed nearly 600 miles away in Oakland, where Ortiz had never been, and where Cal State East Bay’s Renaissance Scholars — a program reversing the abysmal college graduation rate for former foster youth — was waiting to welcome her.

“I had no food, no sheets, nothing,” Ortiz says. “They picked me up from the airport, got me into the dorm, got me groceries. They had a whole care package for me. I felt so welcomed.”

The fact that Ortiz made it onto that plane is impressive: She’s bounced through numerous living situations and group homes; suffered physical, sexual and emotional abuse; watched her parents fall in and out of drug use; lost her mother to terminal cancer when she was 17; and experienced homelessness many times throughout her life.

And she’s far from alone. There are 62,000 foster youth in California (the highest concentration in the nation), up to 80 percent of which express a desire to go to college.

However, only 20 percent who manage to complete high school actually attend — and somewhere between just 2 and 9 percent obtain their degrees, according to a 2012 study by the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education.

But among Cal State East Bay’s Renaissance Scholars — through a network of services including help with financial aid, priority registration for classes, and monthly events that build community among the students — the rate of success is much higher.

Program Coordinator Lael Adediji reports there are 40-45 active participants at a time and 161 students have been served since the program’s inception in 2006. Of the 161, 33 percent (53) have graduated, and another 20 percent are still active students.

Adediji also reports a 53 percent “persistence” rate, which combines graduation and retention rates to encompass students who are continuing to work toward their degrees. It’s an important number to keep track of, considering the particular set of challenges many foster students face in college and ongoing difficulties with students dropping out.

“Foster youth develop ways to survive out there. Being the loudest, strongest person on the street can work when you’re trying to protect yourself.”

“Foster youth develop ways to survive out there,” Adediji explains. “Being the loudest, strongest person on the street can work when you’re trying to protect yourself. It’s a strategy. But bring that strategy onto a college campus and you won’t last long.”

Which is another area where Renaissance Scholars bridges the gap. In addition to helping students cover their basic needs and the logistics of enrollment, and providing ongoing support, the program also creates pathways to the professional services current and former foster youth frequently need.

From groceries to books to caps and gowns, Cal State East Bay’s Renaissance Scholars program gives current and former foster youth the tools — and community — they need to succeed in college.
Ortiz, for example, was set up with West Coast Children’s Clinic, a nonprofit that provides case management and therapy services for 17-21 year olds during the critical period between leaving a foster or group home and being on their own in the community.

“It was the first time I had actual therapy that dealt with the things that happened when I was younger,” Ortiz says. “All the therapy I did before was based on ‘What’s going on in your foster home?’ and the immediate circumstances, not what was really going on with me and the trauma I experienced.”

It’s also how Ortiz came in to contact with the National Center for Youth Law, where she now works as a foster youth advocate (Ortiz has been featured in local and national media for speaking out about the over-prescription of medication to foster youth). It’s a path that has inspired her to pursue a law degree once she finishes up her criminal justice major at Cal State East Bay.

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Black Artists in America, Installation Three Wraps at the Dixon Gallery and Gardens

TRI-STATE DEFENDER — With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

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2 weeks ago

March 24, 2026

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By Candace A. Gray | Tri-State Defender

The tulips gleefully greet those who enter the gates at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens on an almost spring day. More than 650,000 bulbs of various hues are currently on display. And they are truly breathtaking.

Inside the gallery, and equally as breathtaking, is the “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” exhibit, which runs through Sunday, March 29. This is the third installment of a three-part series that started years ago and illustrates part of the Black experience through visual arts in the 20th century.

“This story picks up where part two left off,’’ said Kevin Sharp, the Linda W. and S. Herbert Rhea director for the Dixon. “This era is when we really start to see the emergence of these important Black artists’ agency and freedom shine through. They start to say and express what they want to, and it was a really beautiful time.”

With 50+ paintings, sculptures and assemblages, the exhibit features artists like Varnette Honeywood from Los Angeles, whose pieces appeared in Bill Coby’s private collection (before they were auctioned off) and on “The Cosby Show.” Also included are works by Alonzo Davis, another Los Angeles artist who opened one of the first galleries there where Black Artists could exhibit.

“Though [Davis] was from LA, he actually lived in Memphis for a decade,” said Sharp. “He was a dean at Memphis College of Art, and later opened the first gallery in New York owned and operated by black curators.”

Another featured artist is former NFL player, Ernie Barnes. His work is distinctive. Where have you seen one of his most popular paintings, Sugar Shack? On the end scene and credits of the hit show “Good Times.” His piece Saturday Night, Durham, North Carolina, 1974 is in this collection.

Memphis native James Little’s “The War Baby: The Triptych” is among more than 50 works featured in “Black Artists in America, From the Bicentennial to September 11” at the Dixon Gallery & Gardens, the final installment of a three-part series highlighting the impact and evolution of Black artists through 2011.

The exhibit features other artists with Memphis ties, including abstract painter James Little, who was raised in a segregated Memphis and attended Memphis Academy of Art (before it was Memphis College of Art). He later moved to New York, became a teacher and an internationally acclaimed fixture in the art world in 2022 when he was named a Whitney Biennial selected artist at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.

Other artists like Romare Bearden, who had a Southern experience but lived up North, were featured in all three installments.

“During this period of time, he was a major figure,” said Sharp. “He wrote one of the first books on the history of African American art during a time when there were more Black academics, art teachers, more Black everything!”

Speaking of Black educators, Sharp said the head curator behind this tri-part series and Dixon’s partner in the arts is Earnestine Jenkins, Ph.D., an art history professor at the University of Memphis, who also earned a Master of Arts degree from Memphis State University (now UofM). “We began working with Dr. Jenkins in 2018,” he said.

Sharp explained that it takes a team of curators, registrars, counterparts at other museums, and more, about three years to assemble an exhibit like this. It came together quite seamlessly, he added. Each room conjured up more jaw-dropping “wows” than the one before it. Each piece worked with the others to tell the story of Black people and their collective experience during this time period.

One of the last artists about whom Sharp shared information was Bettye Saar, who will turn 100 years old this year. She’s been working in Los Angeles for 80 years and is finally getting her due. Her medium is collages or assemblages, and an incredible work of hers is on display. She’s married to an artist and has two daughters, also artists.

The exhibit catalogue bears some of these artists’ stories, among other scholarly information.

The exhibit, presented by the Joe Orgill Family Fund for Exhibitions, is culturally and colorfully rich. It is a must see and admission to the Dixon is free.

Visit https://www.dixon.org/ to learn more.

Fun Facts: An original James Little design lives in the flooring of the basketball court at Tom Lee Park, and he makes and mixes his own paint colors.