Sherryl Weems has been director of the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) since 1990. Prior to that, she was associate director and coordinator of the center's College Outreach program.

Who does the EOC serve?

By tradition, our students are defined as being economically disenfranchised and academically disadvantaged. Economically disadvantaged means poor. And the conditions of poverty are different. You have some people who have been welfare recipients over a period of time. We have people who have been gainfully employed and then found themselves unemployed at some point. We have people who are underemployed and although they are working every day, they're still not making enough money to make ends meet. Academic disadvantagedness suggests that people may not have completed high school and they're here to get a GED. It could mean that someone is here because they don't have English-language proficiency to render them competitive in the academic arena or the work world and they need ESL (English as a second language) training. It could mean someone who has graduated from high school but is illiterate. Or someone who has been out of school for a number of years and has been bit by the "education bug." They want to return to college but the gap has been too wide, so they need a little introduction before they actually jump into the college arena.

What programs are offered?

Besides the programs I've already mentioned-the GED, literacy, ESL and college prep-we also have a collection of vocational and job-training programs. These programs change because the demands change, markets change, constituencies changes, the desired skills sets change. At one time there were about 21 different training programs; now we have about 12. But they're designed very differently now because we do a lot of employer-specific training. For example, call centers are popping up all over the place with a very specific need. They want potential job applicants who have four or five different kinds of skill sets and they say to us, "If you can provide this for us, train people to be eligible for employment with us, we can develop an articulation and work with you." We do those kinds of things more and more now. A few of our programs come from grants, others are a fixed part of the curriculum, such as the business-office skills program, graphics and arts program and the allied health component.

What sets EOC apart from other job-training centers?

What makes us unique is the fact that we not only bring the appropriate skill sets as professionals to the environment; we know what we're doing and we do it well. But there's a tremendous amount of compassion that we also bring to this particular setting. It's because many of us are so close to the reality of our students that we really understand what the lifestyle is like, what it takes to get over to the other side, what it takes to sustain oneself.

I understand EOC is exploring a new focus as a partner in local workforce development.

This outreach to employers is something that is new and different for us. We're saying that as partners in workforce development, we are prepared to provide upgrade training for their employees, we're prepared to design or tailor programs to their specific training needs and interests.

Are there other EOCs in SUNY?

There are 12 EOCs across the state. Two are counseling outreach centers-they just do employment and college counseling. Ten operate as we operate.

How many students attend school at any given time?

We serve about 2,000 students over the course of a year in day and evening programs, weekend programs and summer programs. But at any given time, we probably have about 700 in the building. The students are supported by faculty and staff that number around 100. Our faculty come with the expertise in the areas in which they teach. It's like a team approach because you just don't come to EOC to take a class; you come to EOC to redefine your life.

Can you tell me about the BRIDGE program?

It's a welfare-to-work program. State legislation mandated that people who receive public assistance must, within two years, get their act together: find a job, go to school, do whatever they want to do. If it doesn't work the first time, they have only one other opportunity to do this. And by five years they're off the (welfare) rolls. To serve this population, money was made available to provide support and services. We treat those students a little differently. The legislation is very focused. It basically says find these people, train them and get them out to the work force. But I believe it's creating a revolving door. You cannot take someone who has no history and in four weeks prepare them to go to work. You have to feed some academic support in there; you have to provide other kinds of outreach support. We've taken the BRIDGE program and integrated it in with our program at EOC. We get those students into classes; we also integrate their experiences with academic support and mentoring. We do a lot with those students before we turn them loose