1. TRIO PROGRAMS
BEST PRACTICES
Where are we and where do we go from here?

2. MEETING THE CHALLENGES
Of today’s first generation student

3. Academic Barriers
and College/University Challenges
Barrier
 Report lower educational aspirations
 More likely to enter college
academically underprepared
 Reading comprehension and critical
thinking do not improve at as high a
rate
 Earn lower GPAs and take fewer
academic hours
 Avoid majors and courses in math,
science, and humanities
Challenge
 Create an environment that affirms
students’ strengths and
encourages their educational
pursuits
 Provide opportunities for
supplementary instruction,
remedial instruction, and/or
learning skill development
 Demonstrate the value of liberal
education

4. Cultural Barriers
and College/University Challenges
Barrier
 Less likely to identify college as
necessary to achieving goals
 Parents lack “college knowledge”
related to navigating the college
environment
 Only 50% identify their parents as
supportive of their decision to attend
college
 “[Live] simultaneously in two vastly
different worlds while being fully
accepted in neither”
Challenge
 Demonstrate the long-term benefits
of a college education
 Integrate with family to create “buy-
in” when possible and/or
appropriate; encourage autonomy as
necessary
 Assist students in recognizing and
accepting their dual roles
 Provide culturally-sensitive services
that address the specific needs of
first-generation students

5. Social Barriers
and College/University Challenges
Barrier
 More likely to live off-campus
 Less likely to participate in on-
campus organizations/events
 Identify their closest friends as full-
time employees rather than college
students
 Report higher rates of isolation and
discrimination
 Perceive faculty as “distant” or
unconcerned with them as
individuals
Challenge
 Provide cost-effective housing
options and/or ways to integrate
with Housing programs and
initiatives
 Target first-generation students when
advertising organizations and events
 Foster a safe and inclusive campus
community
 Create opportunities for first-
generation students to form
relationships with faculty

6. Financial Barriers
and College/University Challenges
Barrier
 Uninformed about financial aid –
forms, processes, etc.
 More likely to have additional
financial obligations
 Have fewer resources to pay for
college
 Nature of and time allotted to work
differ from that of second-generation
students
 More likely to meet employment
obligations than academic
obligations
Challenge
 Supply materials about financial aid
and the financial aid process that are
easy to access and easy to
understand
 Assist students in minimizing out-of-
pocket costs
 Provide ample opportunities for on-
campus employment

7. What Works
 Outside of the classroom
 Ensuring that students are socially integrated
 Providing intensive, holistic support services
 Forming authentic relationships between
students and staff
 Recognizing and celebrating diversity
 Within the classroom
 Ensuring that students form relationships with
faculty and feel appreciated as individuals
 Recognizing the unique circumstances of first-
generation students and allowing flexibility as
appropriate
 Focusing on improving reading comprehension,
critical thinking, and mathematical abilities
Federal TRIO Programs
(Talent Search, Upward
Bound, Upward Bound
Math/Science, Veterans'
Upward Bound, Student
Support Services,
Educational Opportunity
Centers, and the Ronald
E. McNair Post-
Baccalaureate
Achievement Program)
help students to
overcome class, social,
academic, and cultural
barriers to higher
education.

8. Where Do We Go From Here?

9. Improving Best Practices
Challenges
 At present, there are two separate
processes for students to certify
themselves sufficiently poor to be
eligible for Pell and for TRIO
Recommendation
 Rather than making every university in the
country independently review the net taxable
income for each TRIO student (and/or their
families of origin), TRIO eligibility should
simply follow Pell eligibility.
 If a student has already been certified as
sufficiently poor to be eligible for Pell funding,
it would greatly simplify the administration of
these programs if that designation similarly
made them TRIO eligible.
 That would allow us to apply the TRIO funds
for student support rather than cause us to
assign lengthy staff hours toward needless
administrative work.

10. Improving Best Practices
Challenges
 While TRIO program regulations
technically permit collaboration between
TRIO programs and other educational
opportunity programs on campuses, with
respect to Student Support Services—
that the regulation prohibiting
commingling of funds discourages
institutions from any significant
collaboration.
 Moreover, extensive reporting
requirements deter institutions from
creating programs that would serve
larger numbers of students.
Recommendation
 Encouraging and rewarding creative
approaches to program collaboration within
institutional settings would go a long way
towards building capacity.
 Discourages inefficiency, and some easing of
the requirements could be more effective
without compromising the goals of the
program.

11. Improving Best Practices
Challenges
 Lack of incentive for TRIO programs to
collaborate or coordinate activities
across institutions.
 There is no incentive for these
programs to work together or even
share data to harness a more unified
effort.
Recommendation
 Working together, the North Carolina colleges
and universities could partner more easily
with the many high school Upward Bound and
Talent Search programs, offering students real
pathway programs that ease their transition to
college.
 Create ways to assess the collective impact of
TRIO in North Carolina. For now, however,
individual institutions create primarily
institution-based programs.

12. TRIO PROGRAMS
BEST PRACTICES
Where are we and where do we go from here?