Fresno State checked all the boxes for Genesis Guillen, who envisioned herself a Bulldog since first visiting the campus as a little girl from Madera.

It was close to home. Her brother graduated with his undergraduate and graduate degrees from Fresno State. But most of all, the university gave her a sense of inclusion and belonging, she said. 

In addition, she received on-campus support and advising through the Fresno State Educational Opportunity Program which supports first-generation and low-income students who face educational challenges.

“I really love everybody from EOP — the advisers, my peer mentors — and the way they guided me,” said Guillen, who graduated in only three years with her psychology degree. “I felt prepared and assured with the resources … I already knew a department on campus as a freshman, and I made friends who I still talk to. You make your own little community. It was lovely.”

Guillen is one of 382 students in the Educational Opportunity Program to graduate this year. A special recognition ceremony was held on May 8. In total, 1,826 undergraduate students were enrolled in the program this academic year. 

Created in the late 1960s, the Educational Opportunity Program was established across California State University campuses to expand access to higher education for historically underrepresented and educationally challenged students. 

Support services include recruitment, pre-admission counseling, orientation, summer programs, academic advising, learning skill services and personal, educational and career counseling. Students are also provided with workshops and social events designed to foster connection, engagement and academic achievement, ensuring they are supported holistically throughout their college experience.

With 10 staff members, the department is organized into two units — entering and continuing — both of which focus on supporting students from first-time freshmen through transfer and continuing students, with attention to their distinct needs at each stage.

“Our commitment is to meet students where they are and provide the guidance and resources they need to thrive academically, personally and professionally from their first day on campus through graduation.” 

The program’s Summer Bridge orientation, with two weeks of living in the dorms, got Samuel Chheng, of Fresno, hooked in 2019. He recalls a high school friend asking if he checked his Fresno State email that summer to see if he got in. He didn’t see an email for Summer Bridge but took the initiative to follow up. 

It was the best thing he could have done, said Chheng, now a two-time alumnus who graduated with a master’s in counseling (emphasis in student affairs and college counseling). He previously earned a bachelor’s in psychology with a minor in Asian American studies and was this year’s Graduate Dean’s medalist for the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Management. Summer Bridge helped him connect to campus and meet friends from communities outside of Fresno. 

“Summer Bridge is often the moment where students first realize that they’re not navigating college alone,” said John Lor, assistant director of the Educational Opportunity Program. “It gives them early access to campus resources, meaningful connections with peers and staff and the confidence that they belong at Fresno State. Summer Bridge is the foundation that carries them forward well beyond the summer, and often shapes their entire college experience.”

While Chheng’s freshman year during the COVID pandemic was hard because the physical connection to campus was lost as students went virtual, he said he came back the following year with a deeper connection to the Educational Opportunity Program. 

The program helped Chheng network, build connections and encouraged him to step outside of his comfort zone to participate in things like conferences and student panels. He became a peer mentor for three years and a graduate counselor intern when he returned to Fresno state as a graduate student. In addition to student support services, the program also provides extensive coaching, mentorship and opportunities for emerging student affairs professionals.

“EOP created this sense of belonging for me. It really opened up the floor to everything. I underestimated how powerful this program was for me, because, at the time, I felt like I was pretty self-sustainable. I didn’t really need that much support in navigating through the transition to my freshman year of college,” Chheng said. “But then I look back, and it was always the advocacy. It was always the intentional outreach — my counselors reaching out to me, my peer mentors in the program reaching out to me. All of these things were pretty much stepping stones and really made me think that this program’s helped me.”