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September 14, 2006

UPB grant aids disadvantaged students

Pitt’s Bradford campus has been awarded a four-year $880,000 federal grant to administer a federal program that will help disadvantaged young people complete middle or high school and enroll in postsecondary education. The grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Education.

Through the TRIO educational talent search program, qualifying students will receive academic, financial, career and personal counseling as well as advice on how to enter or re-enter secondary or postsecondary programs.

The new program will help students stay in school and graduate or re-enter middle school or high school if they’ve dropped out.

It also will assist students wishing to move on to postsecondary education with completion of applications and financial aid forms. In addition, the program targets students looking to re-enroll in postsecondary education, including colleges, vocational schools and proprietary institutions.

Students are eligible for the program if they’re aged 11-27 and have completed the fifth grade. Also, two-thirds of the participants will be low-income and first-generation students. Six hundred students from Bradford and its outlying areas will be served annually.

Offices for the program will be based in the Seneca Building in downtown Bradford.

The educational talent search program is the second TRIO program administered by Pitt-Bradford. In fall 2005, UPB received a $1.1 million grant over five years from the U.S. Department of Education to administer the TRIO student support services program. This program, with the goal of benefiting students who are statistically less likely to complete their bachelor’s degree, assists students who are first-generation college students, who have disabilities, are single parents, who are undecided about a major or have academic difficulty.

Filed under: Feature,Volume 39 Issue 2

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