EOP Trailblazer, Nadine Chavez

Nadine Chavez was born and raised in San Bernardino, California. She attended San Bernardino Valley College, earned a bachelor’s degree in Spanish literature and a teaching credential from the University of California, Riverside and has a master’s degree in Counseling from CSU, San Bernardino (CSUSB).

Ms. Chavez taught at the high school she graduated from and was also an adult education instructor for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, and while teaching she was a counselor/adviser for the Upward Bound program at CSUSB.

In 1978, Chavez was employed as a counselor for the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at CSUSB.

During her nearly 31-year tenure with EOP, she was coordinator of counseling services, assistant director and director of EOP, Summer Bridge and Foster Youth programs. She also was a part-time lecturer in the School of Education at CSUSB.

As EOP director, Ms. Chavez served on many campus and community committees, including the CSUSB Financial Aid committee, CSUSB Admissions and Retention, Palm Desert Campus Planning and Operations Council, Undergraduate Studies Joint Advisors and Undergraduate Studies Dean’s Advisory Council. She also served as a member of the EOP Statewide Directors Association, EOP Statewide Foster Youth Consortium, Riverside Community College EOPS Advisory Council, Crafton Hills Community College EOPS/CARE/CALWORKS Advisory Council and was a Board of Trustee member for the Provisional Accelerated Learning Center Academy.

Ms. Chavez enjoyed working with college students, as well as, high school and community college students. She would present workshops on “EOP,” “Goal Setting,” “Time Management” and “Conflicts and Concerns of Hispanic Women in Higher Education.” She was club advisor for MECHA and facilitated Hispanic Women’s support groups at CSUSB. Ms. Chavez strongly believes in EOP’s mission of supporting the success and graduation of students.

Because of the success of CSUSB’s EOP, she was asked to serve as consultant to establish the EOP program at CSU, Channel Islands. In addition, she also served as a Team Member of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) National Study of Hispanic Student Success.

Ms. Chavez’ vision of EOP system wide is that it continues to be a pioneer of developing innovative practices for student success. She believes that EOP is a model program that should continue to expand, and that should be granted the fiscal and human resources to provide the opportunity of higher education to even more underrepresented students, so that they may change their lives and the generations that follow.