Federal grant brings $1.4 million into program focused on advising, tutoring
Metro’s Student Support Services program is receiving one of the largest grants it has seen from the Federal Trio program since its inception 33 years ago, according to an Auraria official.
Beginning Aug. 31, Metro will receive a five-year, $1.4 million grant from the Department of Education to assist students with disabilities, first-generation college students and low-income students, according to David Luker, interim director of SSS.
SSS is one of eight Trio programs funded by the Department of Education to assist disadvantaged students. The Federal Trio programs reach students from middle school to post baccalaureate levels.
In addition to SSS, Metro also operates Veterans Upward Bound and High School Upward Bound.
The SSS program currently offers academic advising, tutoring, help filing for financial aid, career guidance, personal counseling, time-management and organizational skills training. With the new grant, plans are being made to expand its current services to include more workshops, speakers and graduate school planning, according to Luker.
“We’re seeing more and more, the job market requires students to have a graduate level, past the bachelor’s degree — that jobs are requiring more to have master’s [degrees],” Luker said.
Retaining graduate students has been a priority for the SSS program and will continue to be one of the focal points in their spending plans for the new grant over the next five years, according to Luker.
“I think the reason that Trio has survived is because it’s consistent. We’ve been able to show results that it’s really benefiting students,” Luker said. “The stated mission for our program is to retain and graduate students who are in the program, and we’ve done it so well that we can consistently show, in the data, that we do what our mission is, which is to retain graduate students.”
The grant application was written by former SSS Director, Pat Trotman, who retired in December 2009, but has stayed on at an interim capacity to assure the grant’s success. Trotman has been a key figure in the SSS. Her 22 years on staff has helped bring the missions of the program to fruition, according to Vice President of SSS, Kathleen MacKay.
The SSS is funded through grants that must be reapplied for every three to five years. The current grant is no exception and must be reapplied for in four years, according to MacKay.
“It’s really important (the grant), and particularly at this time, given the budget cut back from the state, this will help us continue the support we’ve had for over two decades,” MacKay said.
