{"id":115,"date":"2012-06-05T21:26:34","date_gmt":"2012-06-05T21:26:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ndaspire.org\/?p=115"},"modified":"2012-06-05T21:26:34","modified_gmt":"2012-06-05T21:26:34","slug":"co-state-meeting-awards-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/co-state-meeting-awards-and-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Co-State meeting, awards and more"},"content":{"rendered":"The North Dakota TRIO community has been busy! Members participated in the policy seminar in March. North Dakota still has a long way to go in educating our congressional members but state members use every opportunity possible to advocate for our programs both in Washington and in the state.\nSouth\n\nSouth Dakota hosted the Co-State Conference in Aberdeen April 1-3. Twenty-four participants attended from North Dakota. Loren Houle was given the North Dakota Outstanding Alumni Award. Loren was a participant in the University of North Dakota Upward Bound and Student Support Services programs. He is currently working on his Masters in School Psychology. Wally Erhardt from the Bank of North Dakota was awarded the Friend of North Dakota TRIO for his work with the College Access Network. Theresa Leiphon received the Service to North Dakota ASPIRE for her work as state secretary, taking opportunities to advocate for TRIO, and running an exceptional Student Support Services Program.\nNorth Dakota held the first state wide alumni reunion at Lake Region State College. There were alumni pre-sent from four programs. It was fun to hear stories from the alumni about their TRIO experiences and to get updates on what they are currently doing.\nThe following is an article on TRIO-SSS at LRSC that appeared in Lake Region Woman in April, 2012\nStanding Together for Student Success\u2014TRIO Student Support Services Help Students Achieve Edu-cational Goals Written by: Erin Wood\n\nFrom a simple smile to being a sounding board, the TRIO team at Lake Region State College guides students to success. \u2015They are who they are because they stand together,\u2016 said Lauree Wangler, LRSC graduate and former TRIO student. \u2015They are a wonderful bunch of professionals working with a needed program, assist-ing those with various needs and obstacles. They help clear the fog to personal success,\u2016 she said.\nWangler\u2019s testament to the value of TRIO and its wonderful staff is not unique. This story has been retold by voices of countless other students, some of whom are now nurses, social workers, business professionals, information technicians, and entrepreneurs who work in the Lake Region and throughout North Dakota.\nThose graduates assert that their dreams might have vanished without the support of TRIO director Theresa\n\nLeiphon and the staff of TRIO at LRSC. \u2015I feel like the TRIO Program and the remarkable staff treated me in a holistic manner. They guided me academically, financially, emotionally, and spiritually. They stood for me when I was weak, encouraged me when things were rough, and always understood,\u2016 Wangler said. Today, Wangler is working as Director of Nursing Services at the Good Samaritan Society in Devils Lake.\nTRIO Student Support Services (SSS) is a grant funded through the Department of Education to qualifying colleges and universities. Lake Region State College has been funded to offer such a program since 2001. The goal of this program is to increase its participants\u2019 college retention and graduation rates. TRIO serves stu-dents who are first generation college students (meaning that the students\u2019 parents did not complete a bachelor\u2019s degree), students with low-income backgrounds, and\/or students with a disability.\n\u2015TRIO is a great tool for students to utilize. It is great to watch students succeed, especially when they come in to TRIO in the beginning of the year, so unsure of themselves. With a little guidance and support, they can do great things. It is heartwarming to be a small part of their success,\u2016 Leiphon said.\nLeiphon has served as the director since the program started in 2001, and maintains that TRIO weaves a bal-ance between supporting students and challenging them with goals and objectives. This balance helps stu-dents gain the confidence and self-awareness needed to tackle college challenges without excessive appre-hension.\nThe program provides tutoring, financial literacy classes, college expectation guide, cultural enrichment, and more. Leiphon expressed that there is a strong need for tutoring in classes such as statistics, chemistry, and algebra.\nKateri Long, LRSC graduate and current student at UND, said that TRIO’s tutoring was a great tool to use while on campus at LRSC. \u2015Annette Schmid (TRIO staff member) went above any tutoring expectations. She was a great help.\u2016\nThe TRIO program at LRSC serves 160 students each academic year, two-thirds of which are women. That could be due to a higher number of women\u2014both traditional and older-than-average\u2014who are going to col-lege, many whom are juggling family, college, and work. For that reason, the TRIO staff keeps the office area family-friendly, welcoming kids with a box of toys near one of the worktables to keep children busy if mom needs to pop in and talk to her advisor.\nAt first glance of any college classroom or student union, one cannot know the personal story of each stu-dent. College entrance exams guide advisors and instructors in placing students in the right classes and ca-reer tracks. But, those exams do not measure other influencing factors such as finances, support systems at home, and balancing priorities of children, career, and earning a degree. All of these factors are a part of daily life for many college students.\nLeiphon added that students who are eligible for TRIO come into the office with those very concerns.\nFor Melanie Gehrtz, returning to college to complete her degree while commuting, working, and raising a family made the mountain called college appear insurmountable. Then, she met the TRIO staff at Lake Re-gion State College. \u2015I needed that confidence boost\u2014just knowing someone was there,\u2016 she said. \u2015I went from not wanting to walk in front of a class to not being afraid to speak in front of 500 (people).\u2016\nToday, Gehrtz has not only earned her associate\u2019s degree from Lake Region State College, but has\n\ncompleted her bachelor\u2019s degree from Mayville State University. She still pops in to the TRIO office occa-sionally. \u2015Once TRIO always TRIO,\u2016 she said with a smile.\nKateri Long also stays in touch with members of the program. \u2015They continue to support me on my jour-ney,\u2016 she said.\nAlong with Leiphon, three other staff members are dedicated to work with students. Coordinators Annette Schmid and Patty Wallace work with students, depending on their majors. Wallace works with students who plan to transfer to universities for advanced degrees, and Schmid works with students in the career and tech-nical fields.\nLeiphon and Wallace have been with the program since it started 10 years ago. Leiphon also mentioned past staff members Melinda Martin, Andy Wakeford, and Lane Azure, who were all fantastic additions to her team. Administrative Assistant Heidi Becker completes the LRSC TRIO team.\nHeidi Becker is also a product of the TRIO program. She can\u2019t believe that she now works in the same area where she sought advice during her college studies. \u2015There was always someone there to answer my ques-tions and guide me through the college process. They kept me on track to my degree,\u2016 Becker said. Now she\u2019s there to lend a helping hand.\nThe University of North Dakota also has TRIO staff based at LRSC. Kelsey Walters is an advisor for the TRIO\/Educational Opportunity Center (EOC), which helps individuals with academic potential to enroll in the college of his or her choice. The EOC works specifically with people who are low-income and\/or first generation.\nEOC has several Outreach Advisors. Walters\u2019 position serves the Lake Region and Turtle Mountain Com-munity High School in Belcourt. She assists students with the college process from choosing a major, com-pleting financial aid forms, and more. Walters emphasizes that the EOC position does not recruit for any one school, but rather provides options to the participants and assists students in making decisions that fit their needs. Walters admits that she has seen successes every day that she has worked for TRIO\/EOC.\n\u2015Whether it is helping high school students figure out where they want to go to college, or a GED student who is unsure of what to do next, or single mom of three who wants to come back to school after graduat-ing high school 20 years ago\u2014we\u2019re there. Working with different people from all different backgrounds, and helping them achieve their goals\u2026I wouldn\u2019t want to do anything else,\u2016 she said.\nRetention Tool\nTRIO and other similar programs are key to retaining students\u2014assisting them with any roadblocks that they face on the way to reaching educational goals, and making sure that they don\u2019t fall short of those goals due to reasons that can be resolved.\nCollege president Dr. Mike Bower asserts that the TRIO Program at LRSC is one of the best directed pro-grams to assure first generation and low-income students and families that we care about student success. \u2015It is one of the best because of the devoted staff in that office,\u2016 said Bower.\n\u2015The credit for the success of this program goes to Theresa Leiphon and her team members whom work\n\nstudent\u2019s academic preparation,\u2016 Bower said.\nAccording to the Department of Education, all Student Support Services (SSS) projects must provide the fol-lowing:\n\uf0b7 Academic tutoring, which might include instruction in reading, writing, study skills, mathematics, sci-ence, and other subjects\n\uf0b7 Advice and assistance in post-secondary course selection\n\uf0b7 Assistance with information on the full range of student financial aid programs, benefits, and resources for locating public and private scholarships\n\uf0b7 Assistance in completing financial aid applications\n\uf0b7 Education or counseling services that help improve student financial and economic literacy and assist students in applying for admission to graduate and professional programs\n\uf0b7 Assistance for students who are enrolled in two-year institutions in applying for admission to, and obtaining financial assistance for, enrollment in four-year programs\nThe SSS projects can also (but do not always) provide the following:\n\uf0b7 Individualized counseling for personal, career, and academic information, activities, and instruction\n\uf0b7 Individualized counseling to help acquaint students with career options\n\uf0b7 Exposure to cultural events and academic programs that are not usually available\n\uf0b7 Mentoring programs to help secure temporary housing during breaks for students who are homeless, youths and students who are in foster care, or students who are aging out of the foster care system\nStudent Support Services does all that and more, Kateri Long asserts. \u2015One of the biggest things they helped with was academic planning and advisement. They really helped to map things out for me and put classes and timelines into perspective. As far as the transfer to UND\u2014again, TRIO helped aid in that process as well,\u2016 she said.\nLong continues to use TRIO services as she advances through her degree work. Now a senior at UND, Long is majoring in social work and minoring in chemical dependency. She will earn her bachelor\u2019s degree this December.\n\u2015I am utilizing the TRIO program here at UND\u2014and they have also helped aid in the advisement and plan-ning aspect. TRIO is a great help and offers hope to a lot of students that may not find it elsewhere. I owe a big thanks to TRIO because I truly believe they have helped me to come this far,\u2016 Long said.\nAlong with her career in nursing, Lauree Wangler is raising five wonderful children and celebrating 19 years of marriage. \u2015I also do some consulting as a Certified Legal Nurse Consultant. I enjoy writing devotionals and encouraging others to choose their attitude and be all that they dream to be. I am aspiring to finish my BSN, which has been put on hold for various reasons. I am blessed and thankful for all the joys and trials God has set before me,\u2016 she said.\nMelanie Gehrtz is working and considering relocating to eastern North Dakota for her dream job.\nAs for the TRIO staff, they are continuing to serve students and help support student dreams, something Patty Wallace hopes to continue for a long time.\n\n\u2015It\u2019s the best job I\u2019ve ever had,\u2016 Wallace said. \u2015I feel good about what I do and know I make a difference.\u2016 The rest of the TRIO staff agree.\n\u2015TRIO is knowing someone is there and a solution is a step or call away. It\u2019s a way for students to make connections,\u2016 Theresa Leiphon said.\nWangler hopes that eligible students use the services that TRIO provides, and that they also remember to give back to others in need of a boost. \u2015Mentor others because they need the strengths you have to of-fer.\u2016 [LRW]\nCankdeska Cikana Community College\nCankdeska Cikana Community College\u2019s Student Support Services Program is currently in fiscal year two. The SSS program serves 105 full-time and part-time students for the 2011-2012 academic year.\nCCCC has an experienced SSS staff that provides services listed. The SSS program is a critical element in fostering student success. The SSS staff consists of the following individuals:\nMr. Clayton Peltier \u2013 Program Director\nMs. Elisha Lawrence \u2013 Administrative Assistant\nMs. Johnda Griffin \u2013 Academic Advisor\/Instructor\nMrs. Marliss Platz \u2013 Academic Advisor\/Instructor","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The North Dakota TRIO community has been busy! Members participated in the policy seminar in March. North Dakota still has a long way to go in educating our congressional members but state members use every opportunity possible to advocate for…","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=115"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/115\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aspireonline.org\/northdakota\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}