The James Finn Cotter Villa Library was packed with familiar faces as the Arthur O. Eve Higher Education Opportunity Program (HEOP) at Mount Saint Mary College celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Held during the college’s 2019 Alumni Weekend, more than 30 Mount HEOP alumni returned to their alma mater to commemorate this massive milestone.
The Mount’s HEOP program provides educational opportunities and support to traditionally underserved students who have strong academic potential, but would otherwise be excluded from higher education due to circumstances of academic and economic disadvantage.
The program is one of the most successful of its kind in New York. Since 1969 – only a decade after the Mount was established as a four-year institution – the HEOP program has been integral to the Mount’s commitment to accessible higher education and its philosophy of preparing students for a life of leadership.
Many Mount HEOP students are the first in their families to earn a college degree, noted Kelvin Herrera-Hassan, director of the Mount’s HEOP.
“It’s important for Mount Saint Mary College to cultivate students like this because the college’s HEOP program aims to help students succeed through education and to make contributions to their communities and society at large,” said Herrera-Hassan. “Many of our HEOP graduates have entered careers in medicine, law, business, communications, social work, and more. The accomplishments of our students are clear.”
It’s rewarding, Herrera-Hassan added, to see HEOP students grow personally, academically, and professionally: “Nothing compares to the feeling of being able to see them come in as wide-eyed freshmen and leave successful, experienced students ready to conquer anything and everything."