When he transferred to Fresno State this past fall, criminology student Marshawn Lee-Castell immediately felt welcomed in his classes and by the Renaissance Scholars Program.
The Renaissance Scholars Program matches students who have grown up in foster care or independent living situations with support and resources from staff and faculty to encourage them to earn a university degree and become eventual leaders in the community.
The Fresno native and Fresno City College graduate hopes to return the favor. Once he graduates, he plans to help others from similar backgrounds.
“I want to help the youth who may have been let down by the system, and help them feel more safe,” Lee-Castell said. “The support of other students in the program and staff and faculty at Fresno City and Fresno State have helped me gain a lot of confidence in myself and move towards that goal.”
This spring he was also accepted into the Emerging Scholars Program in the College of Social Sciences at Fresno State. The program, which officially starts in fall 2025, will offer students one-on-one faculty mentorship experiences to apply to their academic, research and professional interests.
Over the course of a semester or full year, Emerging Scholars Program students will also work with additional scholars, build professional development skills and share their experiences. At a final symposium in spring 2026, participants will present their final projects and celebrate their work and achievements.
Besides earning academic credit, Emerging Scholars Program students will receive a stipend of $2,000 each semester to provide extra financial support to handle the workload and responsibilities.
“The program offers students, many of whom might have been historically excluded from research programs, a unique opportunity to showcase their talents and enhance their academic and professional preparation,” said Dr. Luis Fernando Macías, director of the program. “Faculty scholars will mentor them about the research process and develop important organizational and communication skills for their career.”
The Emerging Scholars Program is a fund donors can support on Fresno State’s annual Day of Giving on Wednesday, March 26, to support undergraduate students in the College of Social Sciences. The faculty-mentored experience is intended to support students’ research, academic or professional interests.
For the nine students selected for the program for the 2025-26 academic year, their faculty-mentored projects will study topics such as:
- A local, guaranteed basic-income program.
- California higher education student movements and social justice.
- California climate change governance leadership.
- Historic perspectives of San Joaquin Valley colonialism.
- International organization effectiveness in a changing world.
- Latin American museos de memoria (museums of memory) and their effect on preventing political violence.
- Central American immigrant integration in the Central Valley.
- Rethinking Western democratic models in Africa.
Lee-Castell will be mentored by Dr. Nkenna Onwuzuruoha on a project studying the Central Valley area’s Black community and its ties to the land. Research will involve reviewing the local, Black-operated magazine, The Grapevine, from the 1960s and ’70s, to help compose a literature review as part of a co-authored article for a peer-reviewed journal.
For Lee-Castell, who spent a semester at the University of Oregon before returning to Fresno this past fall, the experience will add extra perspective.
“Things have fallen in place since I returned home to Fresno and became a student at Fresno State,” Lee-Castell said. “I’ve enjoyed seeing how my criminology classes can tie into helping others. Being a part of this program will give me another way to connect with the campus and Fresno community.”
The College of Social Sciences will launch the selection of new projects and student applications in fall 2026. The program aims to grow a network of undergraduate scholars whose research and scholarship experiences uplift their academic and professional profiles.
In creating this network, the College of Social Sciences Emerging Scholars Program ultimately aims, to paraphrase Lee-Castell, to offer students a way to connect with the Fresno State campus community through research and mentorship, and specifically by cultivating a powerful relationship between the two.
Fresno State’s annual 24-hour, online Day of Giving will be Wednesday, March 26. The College of Social Sciences relies on private financial support, such as funds raised from the Day of Giving, to support experiential learning activities for students. Visit fresnostate.dayofgiving.edu to learn how to support the College of Social Sciences today.
