TRIO program benefits Chadron State students

The TRIO program is federally-funded and on the college level provides financial aid and personal counseling for qualified students. Approximately 160 students are enrolled in the program at CSC.

As the name suggests, TRIO is comprised of three basic programs--- Student Support Services, Upward Bound and Talent Search.

Upward Bound has branched off into subsections specializing in math and science and a veterans program to help vets aquire GEDs. Student Support Services is the program found on college campuses and acts as a “big brother” to “classical Upward Bound” for high school students and Talent Search, which targets grades 6-12, said Barry Gore, Student Support Services project director at Chadron State.

Student Support Services offers counseling, advising, financial aid and disability services to its 160 TRIO students at CSC, It also has peer mentoring and services for all students, such as job interviewing seminars and how to prepare resumés.

To qualify a student must be from a low-income family—those making under $24,000 a year---is a first-generation college student and/or have a disability. Freshmen through seniors may apply online www.csc.edu/sss/, or by picking up an application from Student Support Services in Crites Hall, room 344. Applications are continuously taken, Gore said.

The selection process begins with the applications and ends in numbers. Out of about 160 students, two-thirds must be first-generation college students and from low-income families to qualify. The remaining one-third of the students with disabilities must also be from low-income families to participate, Gore said.

This means a student may qualify for assistance in a category, but if the quotas are filled he or she is placed on a waiting list until a spot opens in the program.

The retention rate for TRIO students on campus is about 97 to 98 percent with 2 to 3 percent not returning for various reasons, Gore said.

Joanne Hunter, Student Support Services counselor, helps with the application process, counsels students in the program, recruits others for the program and expects to be a part of the team to prepare the renewal grant. Hunter was formally the college’s residence life director and in December began her counseling duties.

As dean of students, Dr. Rex Cogdill is directly responsible for the TRIO Program at CSC. He said Dr. Tom Krepel, college president, and Dr. Joyce Hardy, vice president of academic affairs, recognized a need for the program and initiated the grant process.

Cogdill’s office supplied information to Applied Information Management in Omaha, which prepared the grant. Cogdill isn’t sure how the grant will be prepared this coming year since using AIM is expensive. TRIO was available at CSC for several years in the late 1980s and early ‘90s, but that grant expired in 1993.

“The TRIO program has been an asset to the college. We are glad to have it back and hope we can continue offering its resources to our students,” Cogdill said.

For more information about financial aid at Chadron State College, go to the web site at www.csc.edu/finaid/ or www.trioprograms.org for information on the TRIO program.

The grant will only last one more year so next October a committee will submit a renewal grant application, Gore said.

Note: Since this story was written, we received word that the Army Reserve unit Barry Gore, director of the SSS-ELITE program, is assigned to has been mobilized and will leave sometime after April 20. The length of this mobilization is unknown at this time but he has been told that it can be from six months to two years and that he can expect a one-year mobilization. A search will begin soon for a temporary replacement for Gore.