EOP Trailblazers

Ralph W. Dawson began his journey with EOP while working on his masters at UCLA in 1968. He was asked to develop recruitment and outreach for the college, and this would later be known as EOP. Mr. Dawson worked with ...

Randall (Randy) K. Senzaki, was born in a Japanese-American internment camp, a painful reminder of inherent racism that served as an impetus to his lifelong dedication to activism and as a steadfast leader in the pursuit of human and civil ...

Ricardo Torres’ journey in education began in 1972 when he graduated from Sac State. At the time, he was employed by the Sacramento City Unified School District as a Compensatory Education Analyst. He left the school district in 1975 and ...

Dedicated to social and educational justice and equality, Mr. Chavez was the founding director of San Diego State University’s Office of Educational Opportunity Programs and Ethnic Affairs. He also helped create what is now the Department of Chicana and Chicano ...

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 ...

Dr. Walter Hawkins served as an administrator at CSU, San Bernardino for thirty-three years. During his tenure at CSUSB, he was the Upward Bound Director, the EOP Director, and the Director of Research & Policy Analysis Office (RPAO). He was ...

Becky Hopkins graduated in spring of 1969 from Montebello High School. In her senior year, she applied to California State College Los Angeles and to the Educational Opportunity Program. Becky was accepted in Fall 1969 as a special admit student ...

Maxine McDonald’s journey with the Educational Opportunity Program began in November 1983. Fresh out of graduate school, McDonald was eager to fulfill her dream of helping people to live high functioning and productive lives. She fully embraced her role as ...

David Sandoval was the former Director of the Cal State L.A. Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) from 1981-2008. An EOP graduate, Sandoval entered the program in 1969 as a special admit student. During the 1960's, he was a student and community ...

Taft T. Newman was the director of the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) at California State University San Bernardino (CSUSB) from 1991 to 1999. Prior to that he worked with EOP as a counselor-intern from 1976 to 1978, a counselor from ...

Dr. Tom M. Rivera, or "Dr. Tom,” as he is commonly referred to, has over 47 years of experience in the field of education, including teaching as a Peace Corps volunteer, teaching at the elementary school level, the community college ...

In July of 1972, Frank Urquidez began his academic career as an Educational Opportunity Program student. He transitioned to a student assistant in 1974 and worked under James Clayton who helped establish the foundation of the EOP. After obtaining his ...

José Luis Vargas was born in Mexico City in 1949. Shortly after Mr. Vargas was born, his family settled in Echo Park, in the heart of Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Belmont High School and went on to pursue ...

In 1962, Dr. Joseph White began his tenure as a CSULB professor for the Psychology department. He was the second African-American professor at CSULB. Dr. White noticed that there was a very small number of African-American and Latino students on ...