UMaine Receives Funding for First-Generation College Student Support
The University of Maine has been awarded a second year’s funding in a five-year grant to assist 400 first-generation, low-income students and students with disabilities to pursue UMaine bachelor’s degrees.
The U.S. Department of Education Office of Postsecondary Programs has provided $561,225 this year to the TRiO Student Support Services Program at UMaine, allowing them to provide a wide array of services that increase retention and graduation rates for targeted students.
Students in the TRiO Program will have access to academic skills-building services, financial aid counseling, financial literacy workshops, financial aid grants, individualized academic and career planning services, peer mentoring, and other services designed to help assure their success at the University of Maine, according to TRiO program Director Alan Parks of College Success Programs.
Parks says first-generation, low-income students and students with disabilities are among the students at highest risk for not completing bachelor’s degrees. He notes that only 27 percent of Maine adults have a bachelor’s degree and that the UMaine TRiO program will have lasting and important impact on the university and the state.
UMaine TRiO-SSS is one of 11 such programs at colleges and universities in Maine, and 1,026 across the nation. First funded at UMaine in 1970, this Program has assisted well over 10,000 students to earn a bachelor’s degree and beyond.
For more information about UMaine’s TRiO-SSS program, visit: www.umaine.edu/sss.
Contact: Alan Parks, (207) 581-2320