A Friend Indeed
Font of Academic and Personal Advice
Stephen Jones is the kind of person who seems to stop every few steps to say a warm hello to an old friend, a student he helped, or even a total stranger. It is, after all, his job. As an Equal Opportunity Program (EOP) counselor and its transfer/continuing students program coordinator, Jones makes it his business to make sure every student at UCSB has access to advice for their future.
“EOP was born out of the civil rights movement,” Jones said. “[However,] we are not just for minorities—that has never been true. Our purpose is to provide bridges for first-generation, low-income students.”
The program attempts provides four main services: EOP Counseling Support Services, Summer Transitional Enrichment Program (STEP), a Mentor Program, and Cultural Services and Resource Centers. For Jones’s part, being a member of the EOP team means being a counselor-of-all-trades.
