TRIO for success
By John P. Jones
 As director of Student Support Services for the past two decades, Deema deSilva, right, has seen many students get the extra boost they need to succeed in college through her office's TRIO programs. One such student is Shukura Bakari-Issa, left, who was part of the program as an undergraduate and now is a graduate student with TRIO. |
When he returned to classes in 1993, Dat Kieu didn't have grand plans. He was working in a restaurant, supporting his wife and three children.
"Twice before I had been to college, and had always felt that college was no place for me."
But Dat wanted his children to excel in school by example, so he started taking classes again.
His went to WSU's Student Support Services in search of tutoring, and his experience in that office did much more than help get him through a tough class.
"In college, one difficulty can ruin everything," says Dat. "One class that you struggle with can ruin your plans." Dat found peers and support in the SSS. He got the help he needed, helped other students, and gained academic confidence he never thought he would find.
Dat recently returned to the Wichita area, and he's setting up his dental practice after graduating from WSU in 1996 and earning his dental degree from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Student Support Services provides academic support for students who have limited income, are first-generation college students, or have other special needs. The program provides an interconnected series of academic support, including tutoring, study skills development, counseling and degree planning. The office is a part of the federal TRIO program.
TRIO was first used as the name of three student support programs: Upward Bound, Talent Search, and Special Services for Disadvantaged Students that were tied together in 1968 and given the collective name TRIO. They continue to be known by that name even though other programs have been added.
"Most universities around the country have only one of the TRIO programs," says Ron Kopita, WSU vice president for student affairs. "Some are proud of themselves for having two. But we're one of the leaders, offering five different programs."
Much of the success of the program is due to its director, Deema deSilva. DeSilva, "Dr. D" to her students, has been with the program for 20 years and has turned it into one that has been recognized nationally.
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But it's clear that the program owes much to the students who enter it and enrich it by learning to help each other achieve academic success. A testament to that is the number of SSS students who return as tutors and understand firsthand what it feels like to be on the student's side of the desk.
"I'll usually have anywhere from a half to two-thirds former TRIO students as tutors," says deSilva. This year 30 tutors are in the program.
One former student who has blossomed and returned to serve in the program is Shukura Bakari-Issa. She came to SSS for math tutoring in 1993. Now she's working as the graduate research assistant to the program.
Bakari-Issa may have come for a little help with math, but what she found in the SSS office was a great deal more. She found a good counselor who helped her find her way through college, through the SSS and the McNair Scholars program.
Bakari-Issa was so motivated by the program and by working with her counselor that she has made it her calling.
"I told him that he had to groom me to take over his job," something she has all but managed to do. She enjoys her work in the program, as she says, "helping students deal with the madness," that can surround academic life.
Students enter the program voluntarily. They may be referred by an adviser or have heard about it by word of mouth. When they apply, they fill out questionnaires to identify their needs, whether it be study skills, tutoring, learning strategies, special accommodations for test-taking, etc.
Quite pragmatically, the success of the program is measured in terms of the success of the students involved.
Each year the program compares the success of its students to the body of students at WSU who would have been eligible for the program but were not a part of it, and the program students perform consistently better.
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In the last academic year's study, the control group of non-SSS students had a persistence score (a value derived from a combination of factors, including the number of students returning for the next semester, the number of students graduating, etc.) of 75 percent, while SSS students scored 83 percent. The year before, the difference was even more striking - 61 percent to 79 percent.
With $289,326 in annual federal grants, WSU's TRIO program has the highest level of funding for all such TRIO programs in the state.
But even that doesn't mean every student in need can be served. At this point the program serves 250 students, but there are 10 times that many, at least, who are eligible for program services. While deSilva and her staff would like to serve more students, the funding isn't there to make it possible.
Beyond the limited number of students that can be helped, there are limits on the help students can get. Students can only be tutored in one subject, and the grants and scholarships provided by donors to the program are also limited.
The program, as exemplary as it is, is always under the gun to prove its worth and win grants.
"We have to focus on outcome-based activities. We need to produce results that can be measured," deSilva says. The grants that support the program are fiercely competitive; the proposals that are written each year need to be flawless and show those results.
Around the SSS office academic success is not hard to find. Freshman Regina Williams came to WSU in 1998, in her words, "totally unprepared." She eventually found her way into the SSS and got the help she needed, raising her grade point average from a 1.9 to a 3.2.
"A year ago," she says, "I wasn't sure I'd come back (for the fall semester). Now I know there is no doubt I'll finish my degree."
