The five-year grant will support academic, college preparation and financial counseling for middle and high school students from 13 local schools who have the potential to succeed in higher education.
Talent Search is one of eight federal TRIO programs (TRIO) offered through the Department of Education that help low-income individuals, first-generation college students and those with disabilities attend college. TRIO Programs are outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
HSU’s program offers free counseling to about 1000 eligible students a year. Eighty percent of high school seniors involved in the program earn their diplomas and 85 percent enroll in college. Most attend College of the Redwoods or Humboldt State. Past participants have attended Stanford, UC San Diego and UC Davis.
“We know our program is successful because of the number of students who graduate and go on to college,” says HSU TRIO Director Adrienne Raymond-Colegrove. “But funding has become a lot more competitive in recent years, which means that we’ve had to become more innovative.”
HSU’s Talent Search will introduce the TRIO Elective this fall, a program that will allow participants to take introductory college classes at their high school campus. Taught by College of the Redwoods professors, classes will be offered in Psychology, Sociology and study skills at South Fork, Hoopa, Zoe Barnum and Eureka high schools. The program was made possible through a partnership with the Hoopa Tribe, College of the Redwoods and AmeriCorps.
Dolan Dillan, 16, participated in an SAT preparation class through Talent Search last year. In June, he attended a conference at California State University, San Marcos, for high school students interested in business. Participants created an imaginary cell phone company and produced commercials and PowerPoint presentations to market the business to their peers.
He said the experience opened his eyes to a field he hadn’t considered before joining Talent Search.
“Everyone in the program was really nice and helpful and now I am thinking about minoring in business,” Dillan said.
In addition to Talent Search, Humboldt offers two other college readiness programs: Upward Bound and Student Support Services. Upward Bound is also a TRIO program that receives federal funding. For more information on TRIO visit http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ope/trio/index.html.