Renaissance Scholar Program History

In 2006 due to an educational mandate from the state of California, EOP had to begin doing more outreach particularly with Foster Youth, to make them aware of the services that the program provided. During her time with EOP as an Intern with EOP, Dr. Lopez was charged to create more of a mentoring style program for those students who identified as Foster Youth. Dr. Lopez began to research programs throughout the state of California and presented her findings to Associate Vice President of Student Success who became interested in the depth of her research, which derived from Dr. Lopez’s personal experiences. When the opportunity to create a program that would serve foster youth at Fresno State, Dr. Lopez was notified that there was currently no funds to start a program.  This did not stop Kizzy, and she wrote multiple grants to provide services for foster youth on campus.              In August of 2008, the Renaissance Scholars program was established at CSU, Fresno. Dr. Kizzy Lopez was the founding coordinator of the program, she started the program with nearly half a million dollars, a fiery passion for Foster Youth, and a cohort of 30 students. The name was derived from her research of the similar programs throughout California and chosen from the input of those Foster Youth Students in EOP. (Lopez, 2018)