Samantha Chaffin
Editor-in-chief
TRiO Student Services at Idaho State University, under the leadership of TRiO Director Sari Byerly, helps approximately 250 students at ISU through their college endeavors each year.
TRiO are federal programs that provide services for high school and college students from what ed.gov called “disadvantaged backgrounds.”
TRiO began as a set of three originally funded grants from the Department of Education. Since then, on a federal level TRiO has grown to include eight programs. ISU’s TRiO offices have four of those eight program grants, including Educational Talent Search, Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math & Science and Student Support Services.
“Three of our four grants just work with High School students to get them to college, and our fourth one gets them to stay [in college] and get their degree,” said Byerly.
Student Support Services is the grant that works with college students.
TRiO provides students with a wide range of services including one-on-one tutoring, workshops, advising, use of a computer lab, a large student lounge and a quiet study area.
“I think the biggest thing is that when you look at the [university’s] mission, one of the key areas is access and opportunity and that’s what TRiO programs provide,” said Byerly.
Aside from those services, Byerly gave the example of a student who couldn’t afford to buy books while waiting for a Pell Grant to come through.
“There are things that we can help [students] with, not necessarily money-wise, but we know people,” said Byerly. “We can call people to [ask about book loan possibilities,] or ask if we maybe have some students who had that class before who didn’t sell their book back. Is there a way we can get them through until their Pell Grant comes through? A lot of [what we do] is just providing a family for students in our office to get them through college.”
To qualify for TRiO’s Student Support Services program at ISU, students must be first-generation college students, limited income or have a documented disability.
“[To qualify for TRiO as a first-generation student,] a student needs to be first-generation, which means neither parent can have completed a four-year degree,” explained Byerly.
Byerly clarified that parents may have started college but never completed a degree, or even completed an Associate’s degree, but students would still be considered first-generation.
“The best way to tell if you qualify [for TRiO] under limited income is if you qualify for Pell Grants,” said Byerly.
Byerly added, “Two-thirds of our [250 Student Support Services] students have to be low-income and first generation. One-third can be any combination [of requirements or must meet at least one requirement] and that’s the same in all programs.”
The Upward Bound Math & Science grant, a grant directed at helping high school students, is new to ISU’s combination of grants.
“Three [grants] we have, the [Upward Bound, Student Support Services, and Educational Talent Search,] are what’re called originally funded grants,” explained Byerly. “So back in the 60s and early 70s, the Department of Education, and basically the war on poverty, developed these programs and ISU got originally funded grants for three of those programs. Upward Bound Math & Science is a newer grant that they didn’t come up with in [Washington] D.C. until 1993, so ISU, you know, didn’t write for it, didn’t write for it, and then when I started as director, I said, ‘We’ve gotta have one of these [grants.]’”
Students in both Pocatello and Idaho Falls are eligible for TRiO services.
TRiO Student Services is located in Museum Building room 446 on the Pocatello campus or in room 218 of the Bennion Student Union Building in Idaho Falls.
To learn more, contact them by phone in Pocatello at (208) 282-3342 or Idaho Falls at (208) 282-7920, email either office at ude.usinull@oirt, or visit their website at www.isu.edu/trio.
