Renee spent 2 years in the State of Oklahoma’s foster care system.

During her two years in care, Renee experienced eight placements in four different cities. Renee was adopted at 15 years old, but unfortunately, her adoptive mother passed away two years later. Renee’s case was never reopened, and she experienced homelessness for her last two years of high school. 

Despite these struggles, Renee was the first in her family to graduate from college. She holds an associate’s degree and is currently working toward a bachelor’s degree at Florida A&M University. While in community college, Renee was Vice-President of the Fostering Achievement Fellowship Program, a program designed to help former foster youth in college graduate and assist with all needs. This platform is designed to give youth ways of developing positive coping skills to handle any kind of pain they go through in bad situations. 

Renee was chosen as a pod leader in the NFYI Shadow Day 2018, which gave her powerful connections to bring change to the child welfare on a national and state level. 

While working toward a bachelor’s degree in Communication, Renee’s ultimate career goal is to receive a Ph.D. and eventually run for Congress. She enjoys setting an example of coming from a bad situation to being very successful. Renee wants to start non-profit organizations all over the state to give foster youth opportunities to prepare them for success. 

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2019 Outstanding Young Leaders
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