{"id":467391,"date":"2026-09-18T01:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467391\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T01:34:13","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T01:34:13","slug":"2026-change-maker-honoree-renatto-guerra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/467391\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Change Maker honoree: Renatto Guerra"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our gala at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 13 at the Grand Sheraton in downtown Sacramento. Buy tickets at sacramentochangemakers.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n

July marked Renatto Guerra\u2019s 10th year with Improve Your Tomorrow. Looking back, Guerra pointed to the mentorship he received in high school as what sparked his interest in supporting young men as they pursue college.<\/p>\n

Guerra\u2019s mentor went beyond the formal expectations of the role. He taught Guerra how to drive, attended his football games and took him to church. When Guerra learned about IYT, he saw it as an opportunity to \u201cpay it forward\u201d by providing other young men with the kind of support he had received.<\/p>\n

\u201cA big part of it is a community that is going to support them and encourage them to think bigger,\u201d Guerra said.<\/p>\n

Now working as IYT\u2019s senior programs director in Sacramento, Guerra supports and trains mentors to work with students across the region. One mentor works with roughly 25 to 50 students across school sites, with middle and high school students meeting with their mentors about every other week for sessions.<\/p>\n

\"Renatto Renatto Guerra, senior program director at Improve Your Tomorrow, is a 2026 Change Maker. He poses for a portrait at Mesa Verde High School in Citrus Heights on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com <\/p>\n

Renatto sees positive mentors as especially important for students who may have absent fathers or other adults in their lives who are not constructive role models.<\/p>\n

One early experience that stayed with Guerra involved a high-achieving freshman he met through the program. He was earning good grades and appeared to be doing well. Guerra wondered why such a student needed the program at all \u2014 until he learned that the student\u2019s father was incarcerated.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough he had good grades and was doing well in school, he was really looking for community. He was looking for other young people to have friends \u2026 he was looking for other male role models,\u201d Guerra said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt reminded me, every student has a unique story perspective,\u201d Guerra said. \u201cWe don\u2019t always know what\u2019s happening in their homes or their families. We can only really sometimes see what\u2019s happening at school, but that\u2019s not the full picture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guerra said his biggest opportunity moving forward is improving college completion, helping students earn degrees on time, take on minimal debt and enter the workforce successfully.<\/p>\n

Students have potential, \u201cthey just need resources and opportunities,\u201d Guerra stressed.<\/p>\n

\"Renatto Renatto Guerra, senior program director at Improve Your Tomorrow, is a 2026 Change Maker. He poses for a portrait at Mesa Verde High School in Citrus Heights on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. HECTOR AMEZCUA hamezcua@sacbee.com
\n Related Stories from Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Chaewon Chung<\/a><\/p>\n

The Sacramento Bee<\/p>\n

Chaewon Chung is an education reporter for The Sacramento Bee. She has previously covered climate and environmental issues, focusing on energy and water. Before joining The Bee, she worked as a climate and environment reporter at the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Sacramento Bee and Nehemiah Leaders Programs are celebrating this year’s 60 Change Makers. Join them at our…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-467391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}