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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Student Support Services Gets Boost from Federal TRIO Grant


Monroe Community College’s Student Support Services program will continue to help thousands of low-income students and those with disabilities overcome barriers to higher education through a $1,194,559 grant from the United States Department of Education’s TRIO program.

The award ensures the continued delivery of support services to MCC students through August 2010. Through the program, students receive personal counseling, advisement and tutorial services as well as learning accommodations for those students with disabilities. Cultural enrichment activities and college-survival workshops are also offered by the program’s counselors, advisors and tutors. 

According to the Council for Opportunity in Education, nearly one-third of all low-income high school graduates who enrolled in college have been served by a TRIO program. TRIO programs are funded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. Because three federal educational opportunity programs were launched during the 1960s, the term “TRIO” was coined to describe these programs. While student financial aid programs help students overcome financial barriers to higher education, TRIO programs help students overcome class, social and cultural barriers to higher education. Over 1,000 colleges, universities, community colleges, and agencies offer TRIO programs.

According to Patricia Kennedy, director, Academic Support Services, “Students who are inadequately prepared to transition to college experience frustration with coursework and their rates of retention and academic achievement are lower than their peers. With TRIO support MCC is able to help individual students achieve success, by earning an undergraduate degree and ultimately transferring to a four-year college. We pledge to focus on results, service delivery, and customer (student) satisfaction,” she said.  

The Student Support Services program at MCC has been federally funded since 1979.

Rosanna Condello
Public Affairs
06/15/2005