$1.1M grant to benefit underrepresented students
Both high school and college students will benefit from a $1.1 million grant for the expansion of student support services.
Awarded by the U.S. Department of Education, USD’s TRIO Student Services programs received the grant over the summer, which will provide a variety of resources for students over the next five years.
The grant will be used to expand education and educational services for students with academic need, Vice President of Student Services and Dean of Students Kim Grieve said.
TRIO Student Services, a program dedicated to helping students complete their secondary education, will use the grant money for tutoring, academic advising, learning strategy workshops, individual attention, economic literacy, FAFSA and scholarships for students with disabilities or low-income.
TRIO Student Services covers three student programs based at USD: Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search and now Student Support Services.
Upward Bound is a group that helps high school students from low-income families get on the right track for college and college graduation. The Educational Talent Search seeks out disadvantaged kids who show academic promise and help them prepare for college by assisting them through the financial aid and admission processes.
The grant will allow both programs to offer more support to students who need assistance.
“I am very excited that we have it back,” Upward Bound Director Calvin Krogman said. “USD was not funded in the previous competition five years ago.”
Grieve and Student Services Jump Start Adviser Michael Suing were the primary writers of the 50-page grant proposal that would help Student Services and its sister programs.
“Dr. Grieve began working on the grant proposal in the fall of 2014, prior to my involvement. I was brought on in early January specifically to assist in writing the proposal,” Suing said. “Dean Grieve and I worked on the project throughout the month for a submission date in early February.”
Grieve and Suing needed to achieve a perfect score to be awarded the grant. The readers reviewing the proposals wanted a recipient that expressed the greatest need for support services on their campus the most completely, Suing said.
“In order to receive a perfect score, we demonstrated the need for this program on USD’s campus, proposed how we would implement the program,” Suing said “Then we explained a plan of evaluation that would reflect how the proposed interventions supported students in maintaining good academic standing, persisting from year to year, and ultimately, graduating.”
The Student Support Services Program is still being set up, and is in need of a director. The grant funds these positions as well as tutoring and mentoring positions.
“Once the director is on board, they will hire the personal career counselor as well as the academic skills coordinator,” Grieve said. “Then we will immediately get that information out to students through all of our sources, through email, the white boards and social media.”
