My Experience In The Educational Opportunity Fund Program

While working for the Educational Opportunity Fund program, I experienced one of the most heart-wrenching moments of my life. It was a regular Thursday afternoon, I was sitting in the office with my co-Resident Assistant when I received a random phone call from my mother. I found it odd that my mother was calling me during my shift, but I picked up her phone call anyway. When I picked up the phone, she was crying hysterically, I froze and asked her repeatedly, “What’s going on?!” with sorrow, she said, “Liam died.” I screamed over and over again, “No, no, mom please don’t tell me that, please don’t tell me that!” I started crying in disbelief and then ran to my dorm room as my co-RA followed behind me. I felt as if I was suffocating and the walls were closing in on me. Liam was only 2 years old, he was the first nephew, first grandson and first child of the family. His death was like no other, losing someone so young meant that I lost the expressions on his face on Christmas morning, his first loose tooth, and his first day of school. …show more content…
The next summer I knew I needed to become a part of that support system for others and thus accepted the position as an EOF Resident Program Assistant. Throughout my undergraduate career and as an EOF student myself, I had many Student Affairs professionals guide me to academic success and personal development; as a result I found myself wanting to do the same for my fellow peers through the program. I worked with a diverse population of students, where the majority came from low-income communities however, showed potential to succeed. My role in this program allowed me to find many similarities between the students and me and it led me to find the right path in my career goals to student