Yakima Valley College’s TRIO Student Support Services, a federally-funded program that provides low-income and first-generation students with academic support services such as tutoring, assistance with education plans, personal and career counseling and more.

For millions of students from low-income households who strive to be the first in their families to attend and graduate from college YVC’s TRIO program is making a world of difference. Unlike student financial aid programs which help students overcome financial barriers to higher education, the TRIO program provides valuable supportive services to students from low-income and working families to successfully enter college and graduate.

YVC’s TRIO program has helped students like Carmela Olivera train for a new career.

“I have academic disabilities that made it difficult to learn,” says Olivera “but at YVC they offer a great support system that helped encourage me to be successful. Malynda Dyer [Program Assistant in Disability Support Services] has been a great mentor to me. She has supported and encourage me along the way, even when I felt like giving up.”

Now Olivera is on-track, earning her prerequisite courses to later enroll in YVC’s Nursing program. With the support she received she has also reached a new level of acceptance within herself.

“I learned to accept my disability and not let it define who I am. Despite my struggles I did not give up, instead [it] inspired me to keep on pursuing my dreams.”

TRIO services include (depending on program): assistance in choosing a college; tutoring; personal and financial counseling; career counseling; assistance in applying to college; workplace and college visits; special instruction in reading, writing, study skills, and mathematics; assistance in applying for financial aid; and academic support.

Today more than 1,000 colleges, universities, and community agencies host more than 2,800 TRIO projects that serve more than 800,000 young people and adults. TRIO serves students of all racial and ethnic backgrounds.

For more information about YVC’s TRIO Services contact Dustin Shattuck at 509.574.4960 / dshattuck@yvcc.edu.