Tristan Lombard’s first interaction with what was then known as the Cal Independent Scholars Network was to call the Better Business Bureau and report a scam.
It was 2006, and Lombard’s pre-college years had looked different than most of his peers: He’d attended four different high schools, sold drugs, had brushes with law enforcement and experienced periods of homelessness. So, as what he terms a “very bitter 17-year-old,” he saw an invitation to create a wish list for move-in day dorm products and assumed it was a con.
It wasn’t. Rather, it was part of a fledgling program established by a single housing employee to help students who’d been in foster care, starting before they set foot on Berkeley’s campus.
“If the university had not invested in someone like me and given me the financial aid, given me just some bed sheets, a welcome week, my life could have gone a very different route,” said Lombard. He went on to graduate in 2010 and become a successful startup marketing consultant after working in nonprofits and higher education.
2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the program, now known as Hope Scholars. Over those two decades, it’s grown from one leader and one student to a full-time team of four who have supported more than 360 students, including 170 just this year. Under its current director, Charly King Beavers, enrollment tripled between 2020 and 2022, and the program expanded offerings to reach graduate students and secured funding for more staff and space.
Hope Scholars’ track record shows “20 years of proving that when we invest in students who have experienced foster care or childhood homelessness, we are investing in brilliance, in leaders, in scholars and changemakers,” said Beavers at an anniversary celebration in November.