Breaking down the TRIO student support services, and how they help students on campus
BY: BRENDAN SMITH
Staff Writer
Within STLCC Meramec’s student center, at the top of the stairs to the second floor, there is a sign in a window that reads “TRIO Lab,” but what is TRIO? TRIO is a government sponsored program that allows first generation students to receive support in the form of academic advising, transfer planning, tutoring, financial aid advising, and the ability to attend social and cultural events put on by TRIO staff.
“I would describe it [TRIO] as a one-stop-shop. It is a student support service on campus, we help students in a variety of ways,” TRIO student support services Meramec manager Bisheng Ahmed said, “The main focus that we have is in the academics area. We help them with academic advising, anything from registration, students come to us for transfer planning, career advising, and we have a tutoring and mentoring program.”
TRIO isn’t exclusive to the Meramec campus though. With programs at Forest Park and Florissant Valley, as well as two programs to help middle and high school students get to the next level of education.
“We have TRIO programs that support college students, that would be Student Support Services, and then we have a pre-college group, that’s Talent Search and Upward Bound, that serves middle and high school students,” district director of TRIO programs Sanela Mesic said. “We are a college access program, we serve first generation college students, and our goal is to help students in middle school get to high school, in high school graduate high school and enroll in college, and our college students to graduate and transfer.”
“My TRIO advisor helped me register for classes, outlined each class I would take for every semester I was going to be at STLCC, and even allowed me access to this outline, so I could refer to it whenever I wanted, and we could make changes as needed. Now I didn’t feel like I was in the middle of an ocean with nowhere to go, at least now I could see land,” Jack Bene, Lab Supervisor for TRIO Meramec and TRIO graduate said. “My TRIO advisor was also the one that convinced me to go into engineering as I always had a love for science and was good at mathematics, however I thought being an engineer was for smart people and I didn’t think I was that.”
The nationwide TRIO program has helped many first-generation students through all stages of college preparation, and TRIO Meramec hopes to be part of that success.
“We are experts in first gen students, and that is what TRIO is for nationwide. It is to serve first gen students, students who are Pell [Grant] eligible, and students with disabilities. Other staff are working with students if they hear through conversation some of the struggles a student is having, and then they realize the student is a first gen student, the next step is to get them into TRIO,” Ahmed said, “TRIO nation wide is a model that works to help students graduate and get degrees.”
