Patterson Emesibe

Patterson graduated from CSU Monterey Bay with a B.A. in Psychology in 2014, he now works as a Mental Health Worker.

Patterson’s Message:
When I think of EOP, I think about Summer Bridge – I remember coming to campus a week early to get acclimated to the campus. In that week’s times there were various ice breakers, team building activities and leadership opportunities I was able to participate in while meeting campus faculty who I am still acquainted with today. EOP taught me about the value of a chosen family away from home, and being a former foster this is really important to me.

After I graduated from CSU Monterey Bay, with the support of 7 other young people, I was able to start and be the founder of a non-profit organization in Salinas that is still thriving. The organization is called the Epicenter and work with youth from at-risk environments in the pillars of wellness, housing, education, and employment. The Epicenter has grown to have funding streams that help specific populations of youth such as migrant, foster, homeless, under represented and sex trafficked youth. I was a founding member and later moved onto its Board of Directors.

EOP impacted my current level of success by creating a space on campus that allowed me to find my strengths, create a family, learn about potential opportunities that I didn’t have the knowledge of growing up, and placing consistent healthy adult role models in my life that I could learn from.

If I could share some advice with other EOP students is to plug into all the opportunities that EOP has to offer and don’t allow the majoritarian stories discourage you. The majoritarian stories are the accepted cultural narratives created by the privilege that place a spotlight on structures that support us as “handouts” without acknowledging the social structures the privileged have benefitted to be in the positions they are in. I dare you to plug into EOP in such a way that you figure out your new interest, and if there comes the day that EOP no longer serves you because you have figure out what you want to do, just know we will miss you and we want you do that thing and succeed.