U.S. Dept. of Ed. TRiO

The College of St. Scholastica received an initial four-year grant through the U.S. Department of Education for the Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program. The program began October 1, 1995, and is part of the TRiO system. It is now in its fourteenth year and is one of 185 McNair programs.

TRiO refers to a group of approximately 2,600 education programs in the nation funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C. These programs include 964 Upward Bound programs, 116 Upward Bound Mathematics/Science programs, 41 Veterans Upward Bound, 466 Educational Talent Search programs, 185 Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Programs, 947 Student Support Services and 124 Educational Opportunity Centers and 13 Training Grants, and 23 Dissemination Partnership Grants. There are 53 TRiO programs in Minnesota that serve approximately 13,314 students. The College of St. Scholastica has 5 TRiO programs, and serves nearly 1,000 students annually.

TRiO programs help over 823,000 disadvantaged students across the nation each year. Two-thirds of TRiO students come from families with incomes of less than $20,000 per year. Most are the first in their family to attend college and many must overcome tremendous class, social and financial barriers in order to participate in higher education. The majority of TRiO students (61%) are members of minority groups: nationwide, 36% are African American, 16% are Hispanic, 5% are American Indian, 4% are Asian. The remaining thirty-nine percent (39 %) of TRiO students are white. Fourteen percent (14%) of all students have a disability. In addition, 7,000 U.S. Veterans are served by TRiO programs. TRiO programs are able to serve only about 5% of eligible students in the nation.