Berea College will host Kentucky’s TRIO Day Celebration this year on Saturday, February 18, 2012, a day Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear declared Kentucky TRIO Day. The event is sponsored by the Kentucky Association of Education Opportunity Program Personnel (KAEOPP). Approximately 500 TRIO Program personnel and students from around the commonwealth will attend and participate in student competitions, speaker presentations and campus tours.
TRIO programs have been helping disadvantaged students in Kentucky prepare for and graduate from college since 1965. Nationally, more than 10.5 million people have benefited from the services of the TRIO pre-college and college programs: Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science, Veterans Upward Bound, Student Support Services, the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Program, and the Educational Opportunity Centers.
There are 72 TRIO programs in Kentucky which serve 21,000 participants. Federal funding for all Kentucky TRIO programs in the state totals more than $21 million. At Berea College, three pre-college TRIO programs, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math/Science and Talent Search serve students in seven counties in central Kentucky including Clay, Estill, Jackson, Laurel, Madison, McCreary, Pulaski and Rockcastle counties. In addition, Berea’s TRIO program is unique in that it includes a Student Support Services component for current college students, including approximately 140 first and second-year Berea students annually.
TRIO Programs began as a part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty and aimed to “bridge the gap in educational attainment between America’s highest and lowest income students – despite similar talents and potential.” Only 38% of low-income students go straight to college compared to 81% of their high-income peers. Once enrolled in college, low-income students earn bachelor’s degrees at less than half the rate that their peers are retained. TRIO programs provide opportunities to enter college and graduate for students regardless of economic circumstance, race or ethnic background. TRIO programs are designed to identify capable students, prepare them to do college level work, strengthen math and science skills, and to provide tutoring, support services, and financial aid opportunities to ensure academic success. Currently, more than 2,400 projects are hosted at over 1,200 post-secondary institutions and more than one hundred community agencies in the U.S.
TRIO Day has been proclaimed a National Day of Service. The program encourages TRIO Day participants to bring canned food to support the local food bank. TRIO is also sponsoring Habitat for Humanity through an aluminum can recycling program.