Making Education Available to All
Reggie Jean (CAS’95) was recently elected president of the Massachusetts Educational Opportunity Association.
Reggie Jean (CAS’95) first volunteered with the Upward Bound at BU program when he was an undergraduate. The program’s academic coordinator since 2001, Jean was recently elected president of the Massachusetts Educational Opportunity Association (MEOA), an organization of educators, policy makers, and professionals dedicated to ensuring equal educational opportunity for students from disadvantaged backgrounds.
“When I came to BU, I wanted to go into law because I wanted to make a positive change in the world,” says Jean, “but I quickly saw that there were so many people who were pre-law and that society is not short of lawyers.”
The Upward Bound program is a federally funded college preparatory program for low-income Boston public high school students who will be the first in their families to attend college. Jean became involved with the program in 1994, and, he says, “I was hooked on the mission and realized that the most positive change in a person’s life is through education and through giving them opportunities that they might not have.”
Before his election as president of MEOA, Jean held several positions on the association’s board. In his new role he hopes to continue to raise awareness of the obstacles Massachusetts low-income high school students face by working with policy makers on issues such as financial aid.
Brittany Jasnoff can be reached at bjasnoff@bu.edu.