TRIO Services Offers Support to Promote Student Success
By: Satchit Dahal
Staff Writer
The TRIO at Green River provides many necessary resources and help to students that are eligible.
TRIO is a student support services based program at Green River whose main goal is to make sure its students graduate. To be eligible for this program, a student must either be a first generation student, have low income or have a documented disability.
Amongst the various resources provided by TRIO, Academic and Transfer advising, tutoring, textbook lending, college field trips are just some of the examples. As classes get harder, it is natural for students to wander around campus and look for help. Time limit can be a big issue when it comes to tutoring. If a student has a hard time grasping an idea in a fifty minute class, then a ten minute session with a tutor is hardly any help. At TRIO, there are tutors for a vast number of subjects such as Engineering, Physics, Chemistry, Math and English as well.
“Tutors here are way better than at any place at campus,” said Falicity Benson, a frequent user to the tutoring services at TRIO.
With college textbooks being more expensive than gold these days, it is hard for students with low income to afford these books. TRIO provides textbook loans to its members, making it very easy and free of cost. TRIO also provides graphing calculators for its students, which can be very expensive to buy as well.
Of course, students can go to the Math Learning Center and check out calculators for a whole quarter for $20, but TRIO provides these calculators free of cost for its students. Since these books and calculators are in such high demand, they are first come first serve.
This program is a welcoming environment where the advisors truly care about their students. From weekly email updates about the upcoming events, or just to reach out to students to motivate them to stay on top of them, TRIO is very friendly. Educational Planner/Transfer Specialist Sharmarke Ahmed understands that students’ lives go beyond just school work. Ahmed has an open door policy at TRIO, meaning his students can drop by any time during his working hours and talk to him. Being in a stressful environment, a couple conversations can relieve a lot of stress for students.
When talking about helping students and the satisfaction it brought, “it is like putting out fires,” said Ahmed.
His goal when a student walks into his door is to put his firefighter hat and make that student’s burdens his own. His utmost caring and loving nature puts the students right at ease and makes it feel like home. Being a first generation student with low income himself, he knows exactly how hard it is to navigate the college life.
Being a student enrolled in TRIO when he himself studied in Green River made his experience, “somewhat life-changing”.
In addition, Ahmed recounted his time as a student who partook in the TRIO program.“For someone to be there as a part of your journey is amazing,” Ahmed said.
Students now can have the same, if not better, experience as Ahmed. Much like others who were a part of this program, they too have a place who will be a part of their college journey. The help provided at TRIO isn’t just limited inside the campus. TRIO knows that what works for one student might not work for another.
”Originally people come to get help with school work,” Ahmed said, “but it goes beyond that,” describing a particular situation where a student was stressed out about both, school and “keeping up with diapers and milk for [his] kid.”
The student was soon connected to resources at Green River and provided help. This organization understands that students are wearing many hats at any given moment.
“You gotta meet students where they are to help them out,” Ahmed said. With 200 students enrolled in the program, it is a friendly environment to go into whether it is to get tutoring help, to get advice, to use the computer lab or to just talk to someone when needed. TRIO has helped its students in the past in their college lives. With students graduating, there will be some open spots available at TRIO so this is a great chance for students to be a part of this program.
