TRIO Celebrates 25 Years of Doing More at SCC
Students from all walks of life and all over the world came together on Thursday, Nov. 5 to celebrate 25 years of TRIO Student Support Services at Southeast Community College.
Current students, alumni, and former staff and faculty shared stories and snacks and reminisced in front of a slideshow of photos taken since 2001.
“I really, really enjoyed it,” Lou Mittan said. She was hired as SCC’s first counselor advisor for TRIO in 2001. “It was the opportunity of a lifetime to meet people from all over the world.”
Mittan saw TRIO grow from a misunderstood student assistance program into a community that underrepresented students could count on. When she first started, they had to cold-call students to tell them about the program and have them apply. Now, the program hits full capacity every year.
TRIO is a federally funded program that helps students overcome obstacles to an education. Many students in the program are from other countries or first-generation college students hoping to achieve academic success.
Sarah Aguirre, the director of TRIO SSS at SCC, put the event together to recognize the two and a half decades of work put in by students and staff.
“Our students each arrive with a unique story,” Aguirre said. “Some are first in their family to attend college, some of them are balancing jobs and kids, and some are just looking for help to find their next step. TRIO at SCC has stood as a bridge to opportunity for these students for 25 years.”
As attendees got popcorn and made custom buttons and decorated coasters, Mittan sat in the back of the room with two photo albums and listed the names of students she recognized in photos. To this day, former students stay in touch with the former director, who left SCC in 2009 to work at Johns Hopkins.
“To see these students overcome such obstacles, it really has been the highlight of my life,” Mittan said.
The birthday party was also part of national First-Generation Student Week, which is celebrated annually during the first week of November as the anniversary of the Higher Education Act of 1965.
Damon Bennett
Activities Information Director
402-437-2077
dbennett@southeast.edu