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Jenerro Lockhart earned his BS and MBA at Cal State East Bay after Hurricane Katrina forced him to leave his former school, Southern University at New Orleans.

• August 21, 2015

August 29, 2015, will mark a decade since Katrina, one of the deadliest hurricanes in the history of the United States, made landfall in southeast Louisiana.

Thirty colleges on the Gulf Coast were affected by the hurricane and devastating floods that followed. Fourteen were shut down, with damage estimated at $1.5 billion, and more than 100,000 students were forced to take the semester off or enroll elsewhere.

The California State University system responded by bringing in more than 300 of those students — and CSU East Bay opened its doors to the biggest number.

"The California State University wants to make sure that the educational goals of students are not interrupted by this devastating hurricane," said now retired CSU Chancellor Charles B. Reed at the time. "We will do what we can, as fast as we can, to help out these students and their families."

“We just had to say, if you were admitted to a school that was affected, just come and we’ll find the place for you — and they came. A lot of them came,” said Dr. Diana Balgas, special assistant to the vice president of student affairs and director of assessment at CSUEB.  

In total, 74 students displaced by Katrina were welcomed to attend Cal State East Bay without transcripts or the ability to immediately pay fees. They were also exempt from paying non-resident tuition.

"We wanted to show our support for these students in the wake of such a disaster,” said Stan Hébert III, associate vice president and dean of students. “Our efforts included mentoring, clothing donations, housing, textbook scholarships and more to help normalize their transition to our university."  

Jenerro Lockhart (BS ’08 Biological Science, MBA ’11 Business Administration), who was born and raised in New Orleans, was among the first to arrive. Southern University at New Orleans, where he was enrolled, was underwater. Heartbroken and knowing it would be years before the university could rebuild, Lockhart turned his attention toward Cal State East Bay, which he had visited during a recent trip to California to visit a friend. Within weeks of the hurricane, he made the 2,000-mile journey west with only $60 in his pocket.

“I had visited the campus before and kind of wondered what it would be like to go there,” Lockhart said. “I thought that it would be an opportunity to keep my mind from going all over the place and stressing about home and family and stuff, so I decided to just enroll.”

“We worked very quickly at assembling a team of individuals in key areas: admissions, financial aid, and housing,” said Balgas, whose role was to create the Katrina Scholars Program to coordinate services. “We all put our heads together to figure out what we could do and what our response would be, so when we said, ‘Yes! Come to East Bay,’ we had a team in place that could easily serve those students.”

Balgas recalls that some students came with only the clothes on their back, along with immense feelings of worry and guilt about what they had left behind. The students navigated rising floodwaters and closed roads to get out of Louisiana and Mississippi. One student took a boat, then a plane ride, and then hitchhiked on a big rig to get to Cal State East Bay. 

“When I evacuated, I packed a few things for a temporary evacuation,” said Kelli Patterson (BA ‘08 Liberal Studies). “When I learned that the school was closed, and we couldn’t even return to gather personal belongings, reality sunk in. I’ll admit I was pretty lost in what to do next.”

“At first it was about survival, family, basic necessities, but then it was about looking at their future opportunity and what college meant for them,” said Balgas.

Clothing and fundraising drives were organized and several thousand dollars were raised, mostly in the form of gift cards.  Mervyn’s, a Hayward-based department store chain, sponsored a shopping spree and the CSUEB African American Faculty and Staff Association hosted a reception in honor of the incoming students.

“I remember the sense of community they had,” said Educational Opportunity Program Counselor Diane Petersen. “It was so cool because they were all down in housing together. That was bigger than anything we could give them. They had each other. They could share their stories, their strengths, their experiences.”

“It was nice to be surrounded by other students who went to school in New Orleans, but it was also a sad reminder that we were all no longer there,” said Eryn Reeder (BA ‘08 English, MSW ‘11).

Lockhart said it was really hard to focus when he first got to CSUEB.

“Having no family, no friends in an area was something totally new for me,” he said. “Everything came at a much faster pace than I was used to. It was extremely tough to reprogram myself to a quarter system and I found myself dropping courses the first few quarters." 

Lockhart said he would not have finished his education had it not been for Academic Life Planning Counselor Veronica Fong, who was able to get him back on track.

“I remember working with Jenerro,” Fong said. “To see where he is at now is inspirational.”

“Change and moving is always a difficult decision. I did not anticipate staying in California, but as time went on, I knew I was not going back home,” Lockhart said. “It only took a few visits to New Orleans to understand it would never be the same. I can’t even recognize the place I grew up. I knew if I wanted to be successful and or have new opportunities the best choice was to stay in California.”  

Lockhart was an exception. Most of the students returned to the Gulf Coast to finish their education. “There was so much pressure on them to return since their loans had dispersed,” Petersen said. “A significant number went back almost immediately.”

Of the original 74 Katrina Scholars, 14 stayed and graduated from CSUEB with a bachelor’s degree. Two students went on to earn their graduate degrees.

Southern University at New Orleans, just one of several colleges affected in the region, is now at 75 percent of pre-Katrina numbers for enrollment. “Recovery has been long and challenging. Students, staff and faculty have hung in there with us. It was tough,” said Tammy Barney, spokesperson for Southern University at New Orleans.

“I think East Bay definitely touched a number of lives of those who came,” Balgas said. ”These are students who needed help and we were a place for them to land and to help them realize their goals and dreams.”

Lockhart, who owns Alluvion Biological Consulting, which provides biological resource assessment and analysis services, made the Bay Area his home.  

“There’s no comparing to it,” he said. “It’s so rich in diversity and culture. I think our campus, our school, signifies the rich diversity that makes the Bay Area unique. I don’t foresee myself ever leaving. I am glad my children were born here and I am hoping to raise them here.”