CCRI gets funds to support 1st generation college students

Kelcy Dolan
Posted 7/21/15

Over the next five years the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) could receive nearly $3 million in federal funding.

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Representatives …

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CCRI gets funds to support 1st generation college students

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Over the next five years the Community College of Rhode Island (CCRI) could receive nearly $3 million in federal funding.

U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse and U.S. Representatives Jim Langevin and David Cicilline announced in a press release July 16 CCRI would receive $554,000 in federal funds to support first generation, low income or students with a disability.

The funding comes from the U.S. Department of Education’s TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) program and pending annual appropriations by Congress could continue through 2020, accumulating over $2.7 million.

CCRI’s SSS program is know as “Access to Opportunity,” which began in 1980 and serves around 440 CCRI students every year.

The program is designed to improve graduation rates and preparing students to transfer from the teo-year college to a four-year institution.

This graduating class alone had 85 TRIO SSS students, more than 50 percent of them graduating in three years and 56 percent will move onto a four-year institution. SSS students are offered special workshop and tutoring opportunities on financial literacy, leadership development and finding a career.

President Ray Di Pasquale said that CCRI’s TRIO SSS program is one of the colleges “longest standing and most successful” in a release, “It is often the model of best practice that others reference when discussing what helps first-generation and low-income students overcome obstacles and achieve their dreams.”

Reed considers the program a “lifeline” for first generation students, providing them with the tools to learn skills necessary to have a positive educational experience, such as time management and study habits. He said he would continue “fighting” for students to affordable opportunities for higher education.

Whitehouse congratulated CCRI and said, “This funding will provide the support CCRI students need to complete their degrees and find good, well-paying jobs. That’s a big win for our students and our economy, which depends more than ever on highly trained workers.”

“CCRI does an exceptional job educating and preparing Rhode Island students for a brighter future,” Langevin said. “This funding will help level the playing field for first-generation and low-income students and students with disabilities. These individuals face tremendous challenges outside the classroom but they are no less capable of achieving great things, and the TRIO program empowers them to overcome these obstacles.” 

Cicilline says higher education and workforce training is the best way through which to, “retain our workforce and create long term economic growth here in Rhode Island.”

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