EOP Alumni Connection

Achievement Award Fund

Currently the EOP Achievement Award provides recognition to high-achieving EOP students at CSU, Chico. First awarded in 1995, almost 60 awards and $17,000 have been granted to deserving EOP students.

Many faculty and staff have generously contributed to the award, but we will be unable to support the award without the help of our alumni. As an EOP alumnus, you are well aware of the many hardships that our students face because of a lack of financial resources. Your help will provide awards to EOP students so that they too, can provide a better world for their families.

Contributions by our EOP alumni family will allow us to increase the number of awards and help low-income, first-generation college students reach their goals. We hope that the EOP Achievement Award will be just one of many awards or scholarships the fund will provide.

For more information about the fund or to find out how you can help a new generation of EOP students succeed, contact Cecilia Santillan Robles, EOP Director, at 530-898-6831.

Contribute to the fund

Make a Gift to EOPPlease make sure when making your donation that under the Gift Information section you specify “Other” in the choose your designation field and “EOP Achievement Award #08172” in the Gift Designation field.

Oscar De La TorreReceiving the EOP Achievement Award at Chico State symbolized the culmination of a dream for me to attain a college degree and to use my education to serve others. I went from being a "provisional admit" in EOP's summer bridge program in 1990 to being elected student body president at Chico State in 1994-95. Currently I serve as president of the Santa Monica-Malibu USD Board of Education, and I work to do what the EOP staff at Chico State did for me - keep the doors of access and opportunity in public education open for future generations. - Oscar De La Torre, 1995, Founder/Executive Director, Pico Youth & Family Center

Lydia VangThe EOP Achievement Award provided to me more than monetary assistance with my college expense, it gave me hope that I can and will succeed in college. For that I am eternally grateful! - Lydia Vang-Zumwalt, 2002, Claims Adjuster

The year that I graduated I received the EOP Achievement Award and it meant more to me than many of my other college accomplishments. It held special meaning because the EOP staff was a second family to me and I felt so proud of myself that I had made my own personal mentors proud. - Veronica Coates, 2002, School Psychologist