National TRIO Day Spotlights Truman Programs

The Federal TRIO programs are designed to foster greater educational equity through their work with qualified students who have been historically underrepresented in higher education. This year for National TRIO Day, Truman’s programs will focus on sharing the impact they both have on and off campus. In McNair, they will concentrate on recruitment for the Pre-McNair Fellows program during the week of Feb. 22-26. Current McNair scholars will take over the programs Instagram to share what TRIO means to them and how to get involved. They will also discuss Pre-McNair and the history of TRIO on KTRM radio at 6 p.m. Feb. 24. Upward Bound will be doing a social media campaign to highlight National TRIO Day and join McNair during the radio show.

The McNair program supports students from historically underrepresented groups who are interested in pursuing graduate education, especially doctoral degrees. The Pre-McNair Fellows program is open to any McNair-eligible freshmen or sophomores who want to get a sense of the services offered and do career and grad school exploration with one of the certified senior peer mentors. Interested students can find out if they are eligible and get more information about Pre-McNair by completing this form found on the program’s website.  

Through Upward Bound, Truman students help high school students in six northeast Missouri counties prepare and apply for college. Even during the pandemic, they are able to take necessary precautions and conduct in-person meetings at area high schools. Teams of Truman students – both undergrads and MAE – travel to high schools each week to provide tutoring, mentoring, encouragement and assistance with college exploration and application.

TRIO programs exemplify the mission and vision of Truman “to open opportunity, promote access and social mobility, foster excellence, recognize merit and do all things that urge our students to make themselves productive, free and equal.” Both programs must submit new funding proposals through a competitive federal grant application process every five years. Truman’s Upward Bound Project has been continuously funded since 1966 and McNair program has been continuously funded since 1992.