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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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Poll Shows Support for Policies That Help Families Afford Child Care

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

Published

1 week ago

March 2, 2026

Oakland Post

By First Five Years Fund

New national polling shows persistent voter concern about the affordability and availability of child care for working parents, alongside broad support across key demographic groups for federal child care policies that help families afford care.

The national survey was conducted by UpOne Insight on behalf of the First Five Years Fund from January 13–18, 2026.

Key findings include:

• Parents need help: 80% of voters say the ability of working parents to find and afford child care is either in a state of crisis or a major problem.

• This is an affordability issue: 82% believe federal child care funding will help lower costs for working families — including 69% of Republicans, 84% of Independents, and 94% of Democrats.

• And there continues to be strong support (62%) for the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal program that makes it possible for hundreds of thousands of families to afford safe, quality care for their children while parents work or go to school, including a majority of Republicans, 63% of Independents and 72% of Democrats.

• Support for funding child care programs remains strong: 75% believe child care funding should be increased or kept at current levels — including 75% of Republicans, 85% of Independents, and 97% of Democrats.

• 74% say funding for child care is an important and good use of tax dollars, including a majority of Republicans, three-quarters of Independents, and nine in ten Democrats.

FFYF Executive Director Sarah Rittling said, “Voters across the country are sending a clear message: federal child care and early learning programs work. These investments help parents stay in the workforce, strengthen families, and support healthy child development. They have also long had strong bipartisan support in Congress. At a time when affordability is top of mind for families, continued federal funding is essential to ensure child care remains accessible and within reach.”

First Five Years Fund works to protect, prioritize, and build bipartisan support for quality child care and early learning programs at the federal level. Reliable, affordable, and high-quality early learning and child care can be transformative, not only enhancing a child’s prospects for a brighter future but also bolstering working parents and fostering economic stability nationwide.

We work with Congress and the Administration to identify federal solutions that work for families with young children, as well as states and communities. We work with policymakers to identify ways to increase access to affordable, high-quality child care and early learning programs for children. And we collaborate with advocacy groups to help align best practices with the best possible policies. http://www.ffyf.org

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Oakland Post: Week of February 25 – March 3, 2026

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of – February 25 – March 3, 2026

Published

1 week ago

March 1, 2026

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Trump’s MAGA Allies are Creating Executive Order Plan to Steal the 2026 Midterms

NNPA NEWSWIRE — The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 27, 2026

Oakland Post

By Lauren Victoria Burke, NNPA Newswire Correspondent

A group of MAGA pro-Trump activists, who say they are working in coordination with the White House, are circulating a 17-page draft executive order that would claim without evidence that China interfered with the 2020 presidential election. Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential to President Joe Biden by over 7 million votes. Since Trump lost to Biden in 2020, he has repeatedly claimed that the election was “stolen” without evidence. The report of a group of “Trump allies” preparing an executive order to give Trump power over elections was first reported by The Washington Post.

The lies around the right-wing campaign that pushed falsehoods that the 2020 election was stolen was trafficked through right-wing media, particularly Fox News. Fox News was then sued for defamation for the claims by Dominion Voting Systems. Fox lost the case and had to settle for the largest defamation amount on record of $787.5 million in April 2023.

The document that could lead to an executive order proposes using the claim that China interfered with the 2020 elections as grounds to “declare a national emergency.” The move would be an unprecedented step that would grant Trump new authority over the voting systems in the U.S.

The story in The Washington Post arrives as Trump increasingly signals that he may take actions that would alter the result of the 2026 midterms. The Republicans are widely expected to lose as their approval ratings plummet as a result of a failing economy under Trump. Over 50 members of Congress have announced they will retire this year and not return in 2027.

The Trump Department of Justice, which now has a large image of Trump on the side of it, “sued five new states Thursday [Feb. 26, 2026] demanding access to their unredacted voter rolls — escalating a campaign that has been rejected by multiple federal courts and faces resistance from Republican-led states as well,” according to Democracy Docket, a group that works to protect voting rights.

Trump claimed back in late 2020, the last year of his first term, that he had the authority to issue an executive order related to mail-in voting for the 2020 elections — which he would then lose. But the Constitution states that control of elections lies with the states. As the GOP works to place hurdles in front of voting, Democrats worked to make voting easier.

In March 2021, President Biden signed an executive order calling on federal agencies to expand voting access as part of the Biden Administration’s effort “to promote and defend the right to vote for all Americans who are legally entitled to participate in elections.”

Trump’s focus is clearly on altering the November 2026 midterm elections. Trump’s polling numbers and the elections and special elections that have taken place around the U.S. over the last year clearly indicate that Republicans are about to be hit by a blue wave of Democratic victories.

Lauren Victoria Burke is an independent investigative journalist and the founder of Black Virginia News. She is a political analyst who appears on #RolandMartinUnfiltered and hosts the show LAUREN LIVE on YouTube @LaurenVictoriaBurke. She can be contacted at LBurke007@gmail.com and on twitter at @LVBurke