Gavilan Joint Community College District
Preparing Students for a Successful Future
Students, staff and trustees shared the success stories at the EOPS celebra-
tion.(L-r) Jennifer Tomasello, Mari Garcia, Emma Terreforte, Rachel Perez,
JoannaWallace, Jeanie Wallace, Simone Reyes, and Edgar Hernandez
Bedolla.
Model of Student Success:
EOPS Celebrates 50 Years
Last month, Extended Opportunity Programs and
Services (EOPS) Director Carina Cisneros opened
the facility's doors to a celebration of the program’s
decades-long support of student success, inviting
prospective students to hear the stories from current
and past students.
“Don’t rule yourself out,” said Cisneros. “Apply to
the program and let us review how we can help you.”
EOPS serves both financially and educationally disad-
vantaged students with a range of services. She intro-
duced guest speaker Rachel Perez, a current Gavilan
College Trustee and former director of EOPS. Perez
described in detail the daunting numbers she faced as
a young Latina undergraduate in the 1960s when the
program was established.
“I transferred from San Jose City College to San Jose
State (SJSU) in 1967,” said Perez, “A lot is a blur now.
But, I recall that SJSU had 19,000 students, 200 of
them Latino, and it wasn’t a level playing field.”
“Equality is fairness to everyone,” said Perez.
"But you have to have equity first.” Equity, in her
view, takes away all the barriers to higher education,
including social and economic barriers. Gavilan
College started its EOPS program in 1970, one of
the first 49 started in the state. Perez worked in
education, first in K-12, and later became the EOPS
director preceding Cisneros.
“When I was EOPS director, we knew it was
really the model,” she said. “We had ninety percent
of the students coming through the program
successfully complete their studies.”
Challenges students face, then and now, include
transportation problems, lack of or unreliable
childcare, family illness or problems with a child’s
behavior. “Problems don’t last forever,” said Perez.
“EOPS gives students a chance to rise above them.
We all get help along the way.”
Gavilan College is 100 years old., visit us at gavilan.edu
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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
WINTER 2020
gmhtoday.com
Bertha Gonzalez with Dr. Kathleen Rose,
Gavilan College Superintendent/President.