EOP Trailblazer, Ricardo Torres

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 was a part of Sac State’s School of Education Bilingual, Bicultural Fellowship Program. He was both a participant in the Master’s program as well as the program’s administrative assistant. He completed his Social Studies single subject credential and subsequently my Bilingual, Multicultural specialist credential. He continued working at Sac State and worked at a middle school teaching Social Studies and Core Studies until completing his Masters’ in 1978.

In August of 1978, he was hired as an EOP Instructor, responsible for teaching 2 sections of the Strategies of Learning courses, managing a caseload of approximately 400 students, and developing EOP Learning Center courses for students. Torres developed the first Science adjunct courses, ESL courses, and Math tutorial courses. He and staff also developed a highly successful EOP Learning Center.

After several years of directors retiring and leaving the system, the program was left without a leadership position. The university asked if Torres would assume a part time interim role as director of the program. He agreed to the part time position, however, it lasted for over 16 years.

During that time, he was able to play a significant role in implementing the Summer Bridge Program, the Learning Community Program, the Ethnic Studies First Year Experience Class, the Science Educational Equity Program, the MEP Program, the Cooper/Woodson Program, CAMP, the American Indian Summer Institute, and the EOP Transfer Seminar. He left the directorship position in 2011 and began teaching Ethnic Studies First Year Experience class and the EOP Transfer Experience course. Throughout all his work, students have played center stage. Their betterment was always the incentive for the program and staff development.

Torres’ vision for EOP, over time, includes expansion of program services to serve an increasing number of low-income and first-generation college students. The long-term vision also includes having a strong commitment to the continued goals of advancing equity and student success and to help students transform their communities through the diligent work of EOP.