Arkansas State to host National TRiO Day February 23
February 22, 2013
JONESBORO, Ark. — Students and graduates from all over Arkansas will participate in
National TRiO Day as a way to show appreciation to the community for its support of
the TRIO programs. The event will take place on Saturday, February 23, from 9 a.m.
– 2 p.m. at the Carl R. Reng Student Union, Third Floor, at Arkansas State University,
and will consist of campus tours, activities, informational sessions and much more.
For millions of students from low-income families who strive to be the first in their
families to attend and graduate from college, the seven federally funded programs
called TRIO are making a world of difference.
Unlike student financial aid programs that help students overcome financial barriers
to higher education, the TRIO programs (Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound
Math/Science, Veterans Upward Bound, Student Support Services, Educational Opportunity
Centers, and the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program) have been
providing valuable supportive services to students from poor and working families
to help them successfully enter college and graduate for over 40 years.
Arkansas State has three TRiO Programs: Upward Bound, Student Support Services and
the McNair Achievement Program. The mission of Upward Bound is to successfully prepare
potential first generation college students with economic need for education beyond
high school by promoting academic development, career planning, and personal/emotional
development.
According to Jerrod Lockhart, director of Student Support Services, “The purpose of
Student Support Services is to provide a smooth yet successful transition for underrepresented
students from high school to college and to increase their college retention and graduation
rates. Student Support Services is funded to serve 175 students. Eighty-four-and-a-half
percent of our program participants are in good academic standing, and 93 percent
of our students persist from academic semester to the next semester in their pursuit
of completing a bachelor’s degree from ASU in Jonesboro.”
Laura Kuizin, director for the McNair Achievement Program at ASU, stated that the
McNair Program works with juniors and seniors in STEM (Sciences, Technology, Engineering
and Mathematics) disciplines to conduct research with faculty mentors, present research
at national conferences, prepare for graduate school and go on to obtain a doctoral
degree.
According to Dr. Arnold Mitchem, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education,
an Education Association that represents TRIO students, college graduates, and professionals
nationwide, “These programs work because they are run at the local level, student-centered,
performance-based and non-bureaucratic.”
Today more than 1,200 colleges, universities, and community agencies host more than
2,800 TRIO projects that serve approximately 790,000 young people and adults. Thirty-five
percent of TRIO students are White, 35 percent are African-American, 19 percent are
Hispanic, four percent are American Indian, three percent are Asian-American, four
are listed as “other,” including multiracial students. Seven thousand TRIO students
have disabilities.
TRIO services include assistance in choosing a college; tutoring; personal and financial
counseling; career counseling; assistance in applying to college; preparation for
graduate school; conducting research and presenting at national conferences; workplace
and college visits; special instruction in reading, writing, study skills, and mathematics;
assistance in applying for financial aid; and academic support in high school or assistance
to re-enter high school.
According to the three TRiO program directors at ASU, “We want more people in Jonesboro
to know about the services of the TRIO programs. We also want people to know that
this program works and should be expanded to serve more students from first-generation
and low-income families across Arkansas.”
###