>>: You can go ahead. You are on live.
>>: Hello, everybody. Welcome. My name is
nick mata. I am the associate dean of special
programs. Welcome to the EOPS care workshop.
We are excited to have you at SMC for this
upcoming fall semester. I would also like
to introduce an another staff member that
is here with me today. He is our EOPS specialist.
He will be helped me with this workshop and
monitoring the discussion. If you have any
questions, please feel free to post them in
the discussion and he will either answer them
in if discussion or he will stop me during
the presentation so we can ask the question
to the entire group.
So welcome. EOPS care. What we will do today
is take about 20 minutes to kind of tell you
about the program, services we offer. What
you need to do to apply to our program and
to see if you meet the requirements. Real
quickly, let us take a look at what is EOPS
and care. EOPS stands for extend opportunity
programs and services. Care stands for cooperatives
agencies and resources for education. These
are state funding programs. Santa Monica college
gets money from the state of California to
provide these programs for eligible students
to achieve their goals at SMC. EOPS is a well
established program.
We have been in existence for 50 years. In
1969, the California legislature established
the program. They realized that low income
and first generation college students were
getting stuff at the community college level.
Once they realized there were two main reasons.
Students were either getting no or ineffective
academic counseling. Second reason was low
income and first generation college students
needed additional mentoring and financial
support to help them reach their educational
goal.
So that is why the program was established.
It was established into California state law.
So because it is in state law, that means
that every community college in the state
must offer an EOPS program. There are 114
across the state of California serving approximately
100,000 students. We are a very large program.
At SMC we have a midsize program. We serve
about 1000 students each semester.
Our system program care is designed for EOPS
students that are also single parents and
considered head of household and are receiving
LA County cash aid. CalWorks. If you fall
into this category and you qualify for EOPS,
you can also get additional services through
our care program. These services include parenting
workshops, textbook assistance, transportation
and meal assistance. Also, grants. You need
to be a single parent. Or you need to be a
guardian of a dependent under the age of 18.
An example could be, maybe you are legal guardian
of a younger sibling. If you are single and
are considered head of household, you can
get additional support services. You can get
more information about this program through
the EOPS web site.
Keep in mind care is a smaller program. I
mentioned EOPS is about 1000 students. Care
serves around 40 students every year. It is
smaller. It lets you get to know the staff
in that program and get the support that you
need. The EOPS course services. Like I mentioned
before, when the program was established back
in 1969, it was determined that there was
additional support services that students
needed, especially low income, first generation
college students needed to complete their
educational goal. They were finding that community
college students were on the 5, 6 or 7 year
plan at a community college.
That is typically a 2 to 3 year educational
experience. The program was established to
help students get through that pipeline. The
core services include educational counseling
and planning. And transfer counseling and
preparation.
Basically, we have our own set of academic
counselors. We have two full time and six
part time counselors that work specifically
with our EOPS students. You can get all of
you academic counseling down through our program.
In addition to that, if you need help with
exploring transfer options. You still haven't
decided what you major is or your guided path
way is going to be. Or even what you envision
your career to be. Our counselors can help
you with that exploration.
In addition, we do realize that life doesn't
stop just because you are in school. Our academic
counselors can help you with any type of roadblocks
that you might experience, either emotionally
or psychologically. We have a personal therapist
on staff for higher level stuff to help you.
They can provide you wellness and therapy
in that regard. Another major service is priority
registration. It is called tier 1.
You will hear of a lot of special programs
this week. There is only a select view, about
5 programs on campus, that by law have to
offer tier 1. What that means is you get to
register on the first day of registration.
The first day it opens, EOPS students are
one of the first that get to register. This
is a really huge perk. Those that are new
to Santa Monica college, SMC is close to 30,000
students. We run like a large university.
Being able to be one of the first students
to go in and pick your classes is really great.
A lot of the other special programs offer
priority registration. They are typically
day 2 or 3. With EOPS, you get day 1. The
state of California gives us money to help
with your textbooks. We do offer book vouchers
for students in our program. Once you are
in our program a semester and have completed
certain requirements, you could start getting
a textbook voucher every full semester. Every
fall and spring. The textbook is good for
the purchase or rental of textbooks at the
Santa Monica college bookstore.
Our other major core service we offer is English
and math tutoring. We hire SMC students. These
are your peers. They have aced their math
and English courses. They have passed a screening
process to be a peer tutor at SMC. We hire
them to tutor you in these various subjects.
In this remote environment, the tutors are
doing tutoring by Zoom. You do have the opportunity
to still get tutoring in this remote environment.
Once we get back to campus, we do have our
own tutoring room next to the EOPS office
where you get one on one tutoring within that
center that we have.
Those are the core services for our program.
We have the counseling. Educational, transfer,
and career. And financial aid counseling if
you need help with financial aid. Priority
registration. The textbook voucher program.
And our English and math tutoring. Other EOPS
core services that we offer are listed here.
Not going to go through each and every one
of them. You read what is on the screen. A
few I do want to point out that a lot of students
appreciate. First is the EOPS care workshops
and activities. Throughout the term our EOPS
faculty and staff present various workshops.
It can be on academics. It can be on transfer
success. It can be on wellness. All designed
to help you be successful as an SMC student.
In the past we have coordinated college field
trips.
You see a picture from last fall term. We
took students to the various four year colleges
and universities. Right now with the pandemic,
we aren't toing those. Once we get back to
full operation, we will resume those. They
are popular activity. They are free for all
EOPS students. We also offer transfer application
fee waivers. I am sure a majority of you are
planning to transfer to a four-year university.
If you are not aware now, there is an application
fee for each of those schools that you are
thinking about transferring to.
It can range from 55 dollars to 250 dollars.
As an EOPS students, you get up to 12 waivers.
You get 4 for the university of California
system. 4 for California state university
system and 4 for private universities. The
reason the state grants this opportunity to
you as an EOPS student is because it allows
you to throw your net wide.
If you are not aware now, transfer in the
state of California is very competitive. Especially
to a four-year public university. By being
able to throw your net wide and apply to multiple
institutions, you will increase your chance
of getting into an institution somewhere.
This way you can look at all the wonderful
institutions we have in this great state.
We also have a few lending programs. If you
need to borrow a graphic or scientific calculator.
We have chemistry lab coats. We also can provide
help with your fasca or dream act applications.
If you are going through those application
processes trying to get financial aid for
the upcoming year or this year, our counselors
and staff can assist you with that process.
We are one of the locations on campus that
has a food pantry. When we come back to qualm
pause, we encourage you if you join our program
to visit the food pantry.
With offer meal vouchers when you come in
for your counseling appointments. We do an
end of year recognition event with all the
other special programs recognizing our graduates
and transfer students and individuals who
have academic and scholarship opportunities
throughout the year. Those are the main services.
EOPS, the intent is to provide the support
network for you while you are here at SMC.
Taking this larger institution and trying
to make it a little bit smaller. Allowing
you to build community.
I get to know our faculty and staff. Also,
I get to know other EOPS students. The nice
this is that you can really take advantage
of everything that SMC has to offer through
the lens and through the guidance of EOPS.
As much as I would love to take everyone into
EOPS, there are requirements that you need
to meet in order to qualify for our program.
I will talk about the application process
after this. I want to briefly go over what
their eligibility criteria is.
First you have to be a resident of California
or qualify for the A B 540 exemption waiver.
The next thing is we need to, you need to
have an educational disadvantage that we can
assist you with. That we can help you while
you are at Santa Monica college.
Basically it is one of these 7 criteria. You
only need to meet one of them. First one is
that you did not qualify for enrollment. It
is to the minimum level of EPG English or
math course that it is applicable to the associate's
degree. Second one, you are not a high school
graduate or you didn't complete the GED or
you could have a high school GPA below a 2.5.
Been previously enrolled in remedial courses
in high school or college.
Maybe you have done some college course work
and you are transferring to Santa Monica college.
If any of those courses were remedial, you
could qualify that way. Being emancipated,
foster youth or former foster youth. Can qualify
you. Be a first generation college student.
Be a non native English speaker. That is typically
defined as English is not the primary language
spoken in your home.
As long as you can meet one of those criteria
and the application process walks you through
some questions we ask you to verify some of
this information. We are just looking for
one of those criteria. The third requirement
is you have to qualify for the California
college promise grant A or B. This is the
grant that pays that 46 dollar per unit educational
fee. If you qualify for that grant, you will
know because it is listing in your financial
aid award package, then you meet the income
criteria. If you don't know if you have the
promise grant, you can always check in your
financial aid portal.
Or just contact our office and still submit
your application any way. And we can do that
during the verification process. If we don't
have it, we will guide you on how you can
apply for that promise grant. We can see if
you qualify. Next, at the time of the application
you have to be enrolled full time. That means
you have to be enrolled in minimum 12 units.
This is at the time of the application. You
have to have an educational goal that includes
either a career technical certificate, an
associate's degree and/or transferring to
a four year university. You have to meet a
goal and enrolled in at least 12 units. The
final requirement is you have to have less
than 60 units that apply to an associate's
degree. You can't have more than 60 units
at the time of the application.
If you meet those criteria, you will be notified
by our office that you have met the criteria.
At that point, you have to sign up for an
EOPS orientation. At which point we go more
into depth about services we offer. And at
that point you schedule your first appointment
with a EOPS counselor.
Our program is designed to really guide you
through the process to make sure you are understanding
all the requirements and criteria you need
to complete to reach your educational goal.
One of the requirements is you meet with one
of our EOPS counselors three times per term.
That may seem like a lot. It really assists
our program and the counselors to get to know
you. To understand your situation. Also to
intervene and assist you if you hit any roadblocks
or any curbs while you are here.
You could be going great. All of a sudden
you bomb a midterm or two. It feels like things
can get derailed. By us being able to see
you on a regular basis, when those things
happen, we can help you counter correct. We
can help you just have you come into the office
or get in on Zoom and talk it out. Try to
come up with solutions. So that way you are
not having to face that decision of dropping
out of SMC. Being able to continue on your
journey. When can you apply? The application
season right now for the fall is open. We
opened on June 1. We are going up until September
30th, 2020. Even though the deadline is September
30, don't wait until the deadline. Like I
said, there is an orientation process you
have to go through.
You have to make your first appointment before
you are officially in the program. That can
take a few weeks once we process your application.
Processing the application is fairly quick.
It takes a few days. Then you get notified.
What takes longer is the orientation and that
first contact. I encourage you to get in early.
And then if you decide maybe you want to just
take fall term. Feel things out. You are new
to college. It is understandable. You think
maybe I want to join in the spring, that is
fine. You can do that as well. We open on
December 1, 2020 for the spring.
We will, our application period will be open
through march 1 of 2021. That is to enter
in the spring 2021 semester. The application
is really simple. It is online. It takes about
5 minutes to complete. You can log into corsair
connect. It is a student portal at Santa Monica
college. You can go in there and you will
see the EOPS application link. After you complete
it, you hit submit. It comes to our office
electronically. We process it. Aaron, who
is on this workshop with me, he is actually
the individual that processes your application.
He will process it and notify you if you met
the criteria. If you haven't met the criteria,
he will let you know what criteria you didn't
meet and to see if there is a way to correct
that or we can find an alternate way to get
you in. We don't have quotas or caps. It is
not like, once we reach 1000 students, we
won't bring any more in. For the application
season, application period, if you apply and
you qualify, you get into the program. I encourage
you to apply. Get in early. So we can get
you into the program and quickly as possible.
Real quickly, I know we are remote right now.
We can't wait for you to be on campus at some
point in the near future. The EOPS office
is located in the all-glass building of the
pico side of campus. Second floor. Room 238.
Within that suite, there are other programs
with workshops today. So I encourage you to
log into them as well to get more information.
But real briefly, we have our guardian scholars
program for foster youth and former foster
youth. We have our CalWorks program. If you
are a Calworks recipient ad o are receiving
benefits from the Los Angeles department of
social services, calworks can help you understand
it all so you don't lose any of your benefits.
Our dream program is a support program for
undocumented students who are new to SMC and
need help understanding their financial aid
and admission options.
In regards to their undocumented status. So
I encourage you to visit them or attend their
workshop today. And pico partnership is joint
between SMC and the city of Santa Monica to
meet the needs of urn represented youth living
near the college. The neighborhood the college
is in is the pico neighborhood. They are all
located in room 238 of the student services
center.
You can find links to their programs through
the EOPS web site or you can jump onto their
workshop presentations that are all happening
this afternoon. So in a nutshell, that is
the EOPS program. The services that we offer.
I did want to leave an opportunity for questions.
Aaron, I believe you may have been answering
some of those while I was presenting. I hope
I didn't talk to fast. I wanted to make sure
I got everything in so that we could with
get all the information in as quickly as possible.
>>: Thanks. I will through a few questions
that were in the chat. I answered a few of
them. A few students wanted to know if they
could still apply for EOPS care. Yes. We are
still taking applications until September
30. Visit our web site, we have a specific
tab on how to apply. Gives you all the eligibility
requirements and how to access our applications.
A couple other people said if you visit our
web site, it goes over all the eligibility
requirements. We sent an e mail inviting all
the students who may be eligible to join our
program. A welcome e mail that gave you all
our information, how to apply. If you go on
the SMC.edu/eops website, it goes over all
the information.
A student mentioned you applied for EOPS,
attended orientation, but wasn't contacted
for an appointment. E mail us at eopsappointment@smc.edu
with a counselor. Sorry. Trying to get through
all of these. I am not seeing any here. We
had a question about the five programs that
offer tier 1 registration. Do you want to
answer that one?
>>: The five programs that the over tier 1
registration, it is a state regulation to
offer it, they are EOPS, DSPS, Veterans resource
center, CalWorks, and then current and former
foster youth. A sixth category was added about
a year ago. That includes homeless students.
If you are classified by the financial aid
as a homeless student, the last, I believe
24 months, you could qualify for tier 1 priority
registration.
>>: We had a question from Walter regarding
EOPS eligibility if you took a gap year. You
are still welcome to apply for EOPS. One of
the requirements is that you haven't finished
60 degree applicable units over all through
your college education. Whether that be at
SMC or other colleges that you have attended.
We say 60 degree units, we are looking at
units that count towards the associate's degree
here at SMC. You are welcome to apply. If
you attended another college, we ask that
you either one, e mail us copies of your unofficial
transcripts from all schools you have attended
for us to look at transcript. We will reach
out from there.
>>: Can I add something? You will go to multiple
workshops throughout this week and learn about
the numerous and wonderful special programs
we offer. We will get the question, can you
join more than one? Yes. As many as you want.
All of our programs do have requirements.
Whether it be about counseling or workshop
activities. As long as you are willing to
Pete the requirements for each of those programs,
you can join as many as you want.
Sometimes our special programs coordinate
with each other. We can count one counted
appointment from another special program for
one of our requirements. So we are not going
to do many appointments over the course of
the semester. Please take advantage of as
many special programs that you think we will
be able to assist you. We have a lot of students
that are in our program, as well as DSPS because
of the great accommodations they offer. We
have a lot of students that are also involved
with black collegians and [FOREIGN LANGUAGE]
definitely take advantage of those multiple
programs.
We have a lot of our students that are in
programs that are one our suite such as dream
program and calworks. How do you apply and
if we will each out to you for the criteria?
When you go on our web site, we try to make
everything as clear as possible. I know sometimes
things can be daunting. If you are unsure
of what certain things mean in terms of criteria,
you can e mail me at EOPinfo@smc.edu. That
goes directly to me for any program related
questions. Maybe you did apply and for some
reason you may have been denied and you want
more follow up, you can e mail me directly.
I will follow up with you on that as well.
>>: I think that is all the questions I have
in here. I don't know if any other students
may have some more
so with that, I definitely encourage you,
like I mentioned before, the other programs
in our area are doing workshops throughout
this afternoon. I encourage you to jump in
on those. Learn more about each of those programs
I encourage you to take advantage of all the
opportunities that SMC has to offer. We are
bummed that we weren't able to do the in person
welcome day for you. I am sure you have heard.
It is a great event. We will do it in one
day. You get to see SMC in full force. I hope
we can bring that back next year. At least
in this virtual environment, we can put our
names with the respective programs. Get contact
information. This is all being recorded. These
will be available to you to come back to over
the next year if you want to rewatch this
video or any other videos are workshops that
were put on for this current week. You can
come back and get this information. Reach
out to us. Our contact information is there
on the slide EOPSinfo@smc.edu is the easiest
way to reach us. That goes to Aaron. If he
can't answer it, he will send it to me, the
director, or one of our counselors that can
help you. That way we can get you the support
you need or get you connected to the right
resources to help you be successful.
We know you have a long day. We won't keep
you the full 45 minutes. We will go ahead
and log off and sign off. Thank you for coming
to our workshop. We look forward to seeing
more of you in this virtual world. That I
can care. Thank you. Take care. Thank you.
