EOPS/CARE: About Us

Extended Opportunity Programs & Services (EOPS) is a state funded program designed to assist underepresented, non-traditional low-income and educationally disadvantaged students gain access to, and successfully complete, higher education. EOPS students may also be defined as “at risk” since students who are academically underprepared and have financial need often do not succeed in college without the services of programs such as EOPS. At CC, EOPS serves 400-600 students a year: a highly diverse population of men and women of all ages, various ethnicities/races/cultures, and in the full range of “life stages” from recent high school graduates to re-entry single parents to retired persons seeking a new career.

Cooperative Agencies Resources for Education (CARE) is a supplementary grant program within EOPS to provide additional services and benefits to welfare-dependent single parents with children under the age of 14.

EOPS/CARE Staff:
Director	Dr. Eliazer Ayala-Austin ED.D.
EOPS/CARE Staff Assistant	Linda Allen
EOPS/CARE Program Services Coordinator	José Romero
EOPS Counselor	Nonan Villanueva

Contact EOPS/CARE:
Phone	650.306.3300
Fax	650.306.3305
Email	caneops@smccd.edu
Open Hours	Monday-Friday 8:00 am - 4:30 pm
Location	Student Services Building Building 9, Room 9-133 Cañada College 4200 Farm Hill Blvd. Redwood City, CA 94061-1099

The Nickel and the Nail
(Source: MPC EOPS)

In November 1971, the Executive Committee of the California Community College EOPS Association (CCCEOPSA) adopted the Nickel and the Nail as the symbol of aid offered to many California Community College students through EOPS. This symbol, the EOPS logo, represents a successful effort at helping to provide the motivation and means for students to reach their educational goals. Here is the story:

A young man in the deep South was walking down a dusty road to visit a lady friend, all to aware that the nickel in his pocket was all he had in the world. That emptiness tore away at his self esteem.But, as he walked, he noticed two gnarled horseshoe nails that were twisted together and lying by the road. He picked them up and put them in his pocket, and as the metal jingled against his meager fortune, the young man walked a little straighter , with a little more pride and dignity.It is important to have “something to jingle.”

EOPS works to enhance self esteem, foster pride and dignity, and motivate people to more effectively define and pursue career goals.

The nails twisted into a puzzle, suggesting the problem has yet to be unraveled for helping people who, by circumstances of the society in which we live, have been limited in meeting their own educational challenges.