Many freshmen stepping onto a college campus this fall can say they’ve officially left home.
For me, arriving at SUNY Corning Community College helped me find mine.
My mom, my siblings and I bounced around from place to place in towns across the Southern Tier throughout my childhood. We finally landed in Bath, where, at age 14, I moved one last time — into a foster home in Elmira.
Until then, school had been a challenge because of the distractions in my home life that interfered with my ability to focus on academics. But now in high school and in a stable home, for the first time I saw a path toward college. I set my sights on studying to become a social worker because I wanted to make the same impact that my social worker made on me as a foster
youth. However, financial aid and the availability of on-campus supports were still potential barriers standing in the way.
Choosing Corning was not just a matter of convenience, even though it was halfway between my foster home in Elmira and my friends in Bath. Having access to the SUNY Educational Opportunity Program through Corning was a deciding factor.
What is SUNY EOP?
SUNY EOP is not just a financial aid program. It pairs students with tailored academic and personal supports that help keep us on track in our studies. At a time when colleges nationwide are experiencing enrollment declines, EOP serves a dual purpose, helping bring students like me in the door, then delivering retention supports needed to keep us here through graduation.
Those supports were available even before my first year officially started this fall. I enrolled in a summer program that included a capstone project teaching unhoused individuals time and financial management and other core skills needed to hold down sustainable jobs and housing. It not only got me into a groove early with the pace of college work, but it also gave me the opportunity to spend the summer living on campus and making friends to better acclimate to this new environment.
More than a headstart on the transition to college, the experience helped me find a home after years of feeling like I never really had a place.
While I know there are many EOP students and graduates who feel the same, I am acutely aware that there are still many others out there who would thrive in college with EOP behind them if they didn’t face a barrier to accessing the program. The biggest challenge right now is that enrollment is growing faster than SUNY schools can make more slots available.
The state has recognized the value of this program, investing an additional $10.7 million, the largest single annual increase in funding in the program's long history. As enrollment continues to increase, growing by 21% since 2022, sustained investment in EOP is essential.
Among the courses I’m enrolled in this fall is public speaking, for which we were asked to deliver a speech about an item that is important to who we are. I chose to speak about the t-shirt I wore on the day I entered foster care. It was the only thing that I owned at the time. Saying those words out loud was a powerful moment for me, one that I would not have experienced if not for EOP making college a reality.
We must take steps to ensure that if a path like mine is right for others, they face no barriers to following it home.
Audra Abeel is a first-year student at SUNY Corning Community College.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Educational Opportunity Program is essential for NY students | Opinion
