I am excited to announce Yanick Jenkins, Director of the Educational Opportunity Program as the first speaker for Buffalo State College’s Elevating Student Success in Our Current Environment Conversation Series. The title of her presentation is “When Access and Opportunity Meet” and will be held via zoom on Thursday, October 29^th from 12:15 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. This series is co-sponsored by the Title III Taskforce and the Professional Development Center. Please register through LibCal here.

Program Description:

What does student success mean at Buffalo State College, what are the individual ways that we cultivate student success at the college, and how can we as individuals apply these practices to our own work to support the students we serve? Join us as we learn from our colleagues their definition of student success and the specific practices you as a staff or faculty can apply to better support the intellectual, personal, and professional growth of our students. Each conversation will involve a 10 – 15 minute presentation from a staff or faculty member focused on their definition of student success and effective practices that others can apply to their work with students. These conversations will then be followed by a 45 – 50 minute facilitated conversation by a member of the Title III Taskforce about how we can apply these practices to our individual work with students, colleagues sharing similar practices found to be effective, and building off of the ideas presented to elevate these practices across campus.

Speaker Bio:

Born in Au Cap Haiti, raised in Spring Valley New York, Yanick Heriveaux Jenkins has had the honor of serving as the Director of the Buffalo State College Arthur O. Eve Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) for 19 years, and Senior Advisor for Pre Collegiate Programs since 2019. As such, she has created an energetic atmosphere for the growth and development of academic scholars and future community leaders.

With a BS in Social Work, and Masters in Counselor Education; specializing in counseling minority groups, she worked for 8 years as the creator and Director of the Office for Multicultural Affairs at D’Youville College and is a former EOP Advisor at SUNY Brockport and an HEOP advisor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. She has dedicated her life to fostering and supporting empowerment, leadership, and self enhancement qualities of all she comes in contact with, paying special attention to those who are marginalized within society.

Yanick is the WNY Region Coordinator for the Educational Opportunity Program Directors group, a 20-year consultant/program facilitator with the National Federation for Just Communities (NFJC), a 2001 graduate of Leadership Buffalo and an active member of the women’s empowerment group Women in the Spotlight Going Global (WITSGG). She partners with EMBRACE WNY, an organization working toward equality for all WNY residents; especially in the LGBT community, The Young Miss Buffalo Empowerment Training and Pageant, The Haiti Outreach Program; Pwoje Espwa, and is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority inc.

Presenter: Yanick Jenkins