Meet Sophia Parmigiani, former student trustee and current Berkeley City College student, following her dream with the help of EOPS! The Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) is a state-funded program designed to provide support services to low-income and academically disadvantaged students to become successful in college.

EOPS is available to assist students with support services like early registration, academic counseling, career guidance, tutoring, book grants, transfer assistance, and much more. The EOPS program welcomes all eligible students at all 4 of our campuses: Berkeley City College, College of Alameda, Laney College, and Merritt College.

For more information on EOPS, or to apply, please visit: https://www.peralta.edu/eops

For more information on Berkeley City College, please visit: https://www.berkeleycitycollege.edu/

Below is a written transcript of the video:

"I heard about EOPS on the first day I visited Berkeley City College. I was trying to learn about the school, and they told me I could receive benefits for classes and access to these resources if I was eligible for EOPS. And another thing I was looking for was student housing. I was informed about co-op housing in the general area, so that really helped. I got situated, [and] the rest is history from there. I've been part of the program ever since.

I think the service that supported my academic success the most would be counseling. That really gave me the chance to take advantage of personal counseling. I've been with the same counselor for the last 2 or so years, and so she's walked with me through this whole process of planning out where I'm gonna go after this. I want to get my Biology degree and hopefully transfer to UC Berkeley, as is the case for most students who come here. Luckily, my counselor in EOPS has had a lot of students transfer to Berkeley, and we have these resources available to us and this knowledge from past students.

I can't express how much I love the EOPS program here. My first year, I was in my first Chemistry class. I needed a scientific calculator; I had the book voucher, but I didn't know if these tools counted towards it. And I simply asked for something, like a calculator, and they had it available, and they were like, 'Of course, you can use the one that we have.' And so, little things like that have really just, they add up, and they've helped me along the way, and I'm super grateful."