$1.1 Million Grant Awarded To Support Student Success Published July 20, 2015 by Ali Sexton

Rose State College Trio Grant Renewed For 5 More Years

“Physically, mentally everything changed here at Rose. I thought I was just going to take classes but it turned out to be so much more and I’m really sad to leave.”

Midwest City, Okla. – Student Supports Services (also referred to as SSS or TRIO) provides academic tutoring, advisement, and assistance with scholarship search financial aid applications.  Rose State’s program goes a step further-the 140 students in the TRIO program at Rose State are case managed to increase their chances of success. The grant program is available to students who are the first in their family to attend college, qualify for federal financial aid, or have a disability. Amber Mitchell and Jessica Nelson staff the TRIO office and work diligently to ensure the success of each student.  Beyond the classroom, they are active participants in the transfer process as well.  When a student approaches graduating with their associate degree, the TRIO staff coordinates a visit for that student to the institution at which they will go on to receive their bachelor’s.  The student is able to familiarize themselves with the new campus and receive assistance in the admission and enrollment process. 

Thanks to the $1.1 million ($220,000 each year for five years) grant that was recently awarded, the doors to TRIO will stay open for an additional five years at the community college just seven minutes from downtown OKC.  Amber Mitchell, Director of Student Support Services at Rose State said, “We are excited to have the opportunity to serve students of Rose State College for an additional five years.  We look forward to building on the prior success of the program and will continue to help students achieve their academic goals and support them through their educational endeavors.  We believe the program has a positive impact on students and are thrilled we can continue to make a difference.”

One of the many success stories out of the TRIO program is Julia. On the day we spoke, it was her 24^th birthday and she’d taken the walk across the stage the Friday before to get her diploma. That diploma, while she thought she didn’t really want to do the whole “graduation thing”, turned out to be a shining moment.

Julia is a first generation college student. Her brother didn’t go to college, neither did her sister-nor her parents. In fact she was well on her way in another profession when she realized, “you know I need to get my degree”, but she wanted to do it debt free. She told us how Rose State seemed like the most logical and affordable option for her. In a year and half she earned her liberal arts –general studies degree and this fall will be attending UCO to study design.

Julia had this to say, “This experience has been great especially my first semester. I didn’t really talk or break out but the professors made me feel really welcome and I was struggling with English and my professor made me feel like I could do it, AND I did it. Not only did I learn a lot in terms of education but the TRIO program and Rose State taught me foundational life skills including how to be debt free in college and how to manage my time.”

After hearing a presentation from the Wellness Center- Julia says she started working out and lost weight during college.

She told us, “Physically, mentally everything changed here at Rose. I thought I was just going to take classes but it turned out to be so much more and I’m really sad to leave.”

Rose State partnered with Julia to earn her associate degree. With programs like TRIO, going somewhere truly starts at Rose State College.

For more information or to apply to be a part of the TRIO program: https://www.rose.edu/content/academics/student-services/student-support-services/.