LEWISTON, Idaho – The TRIO Talent Search program at Lewis-Clark State College has been awarded $25,000 in supplemental grant funds from the U.S. Department of Education to support STEM activities for participants.
All TRIO programs are designed to support and serve first-generation, low-income, and disabled students along the pipeline from middle school through graduate school. The TRIO program at LC State helps qualified students with free assistance in such activities as college campus visits, career development, study skills, ACT/SAT preparation, and financial aid and college admissions processes.
Because most of the more than 20 middle schools in Idaho Region 2 are from rural areas, outside opportunities for STEM activities are fairly limited to the school and school year, LC State officials wrote in their grant proposal. To help with this issue, the STEM grant at LC State will be used to send middle school students to residential STEM camps in Boise and McCall to more fully immerse them in STEM content as well as develop non-cognitive skills such as teamwork, resilience, and leadership.
The TRIO program has been successfully grant funded since 2006 at LC State. The program is 100 percent federally funded at $317,307 annually. The TRIO Talent Search program serves students age 11-27 who show desire to seek post-high school education, but whose families are on limited income and whose parents did not graduate with a four-year college degree. The Educational Talent Search serves schools in Weippe, Lapwai, Orofino, Kooskia and Kamiah.
For more information on TRIO at LCSC or the supplemental grant, contact Traci Birdsell, senior director of the Educational Opportunity Grant Programs at LC State, at either [email protected] or 208-792-2848.