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������ý����, The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) and Mercer County Community College (MCCC) have joined forces to launch the Capital 3 Collaborative, a new program to provide resources and opportunities for students who benefit from the Educational Opportunity Program (EOP) — also referred to as the Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) — at each institution. 

The Capital 3 Collaborative, which references the proximity of the three colleges to the state capital in Trenton, is a joint networking, community building and transfer pipeline that will foster connections between students at each institution to increase student engagement and promote student leadership. The collaborative program also hopes to raise public familiarity with the Educational Opportunity Program on a larger scale. EOP is a state-sponsored program that helps low-income New Jersey residents attend college.

“My colleagues and I are excited about the many doors this new collaboration can open for our students,” says Dr. Reggie Walker, director of ������ý����’s Educational Opportunity Program. “We hope this new opportunity will help students grow both personally and professionally, while immersing them further in their local community.”

“The Capital 3 Collaborative will offer purposeful programming focused on student wellness, financial literacy, leadership development and civic engagement,” says Tieka Harris, director of TCNJ’s EOF program. “We hope to offer our students opportunities to connect and network with their peers outside of their own institution as a way to further engender a sense of belonging within the EOF community and beyond.”

In addition to resources, the program will sponsor a series of events including a “Wellness Weekend” to promote holistic wellness while addressing mental health issues and concerns, along with “Care for the Capital,” a community service event to be held in Trenton which will align with the overall goal of fostering leadership and will serve as a civic engagement learning experience.

Another mission of the program is to enhance the transfer student pipeline from MCCC to ������ý���� and TCNJ.

“This is another example of our collaborations that increase pathways to higher education for Mercer residents and the region,” says MCCC's Assistant Vice President of Academic Affairs James H. Whitney III. “This collaboration serves as a model of how community colleges and four-year colleges can and should be active partners to serve our community.”