Students and graduates from Eastern Washington University's two TRIO programs, Student Support Services and McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement, will gather next week to celebrate National TRIO Day.
The federal TRIO programs (TRIO) are federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
This coming Tuesday, April 19, Eastern will hold a TRIO Day celebration starting at 2 p.m. in the reading room on the second floor of Hargreaves Hall. Alumni and current students who have benefited from TRIO programs will be on hand to share their success stories. Also expected to attend are federal and state legislative representatives, EWU President Rodolfo Arévalo and various EWU faculty, staff and community supporters.
“Eastern's TRIO programs are the lifelines to the university for many of our first-generation, low-income students,” Ruth Galm, executive director of Grant and Research Development at EWU, said in a press release. “These programs support students' academic development as well as help them overcome challenges they face in seeking financial aid and balancing school with family.
EWU's McNair Scholars and Student Support Services have been instrumental in ensuring that at-risk students not only obtain an undergraduate degree, but also seek rewarding career paths and consider graduate education as well.”
The TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) project has been on the Eastern campus since 1977 and has served thousands of students. EWU's project focuses on academic support in the areas of reading, writing, math and effective college study strategies. Annually, EWU's SSS project's retention (83 percent) and six-year graduation (52 percent) rates are higher than the overall institutional averages. Because of the success of the TRIO Student Support Services projects in Washington, the state legislature has funded a sister program, Washington TRIO Expansion Program (WaTEP), to serve an additional 250 TRIO-eligible students at EWU.
Named for astronaut and Challenger space shuttle crew member Ronald E. McNair, TRIO's Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program was funded by Congress in 1989 to encourage underrepresented students to pursue graduate-level degrees. Since EWU's McNair program began in 1995, 71 EWU McNair Scholars have earned master's degrees, four have earned doctorates and more than 50 are currently enrolled in graduate programs.
Martín Meráz García, assistant professor of Chicano Education at Eastern, is an alumnus of both TRIO SSS and McNair. “As a first-generation student who entered college with limited academic skills, I was given the support that enabled me to earn a doctoral degree that allows me to teach at universities, present my research at national and international conferences and to publish articles in scholarly journals,” he said in a release.
“During these economically arduous times, more people across the country and in our own communities need to know about the services of the TRIO Programs and how vital they are to the success of our nation,” said Aaron Brown, a TRIO alumnus and current director of the SSS program at EWU. “People need to know that TRIO works. TRIO changes lives.”
Since March 28 EWU's TRIO programs have been collecting clothing for the local Cheney Clothing Bank. The goal was to collect 500 pieces of clothing between March 28 and April 14, so there's still time to give. Clean, reusable clothes or new, unused socks and undergarments can be donated at collection points throughout the campus. The Cheney Clothing Bank provides all its clothing to consumers free of charge.
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