April 2021 Gazette

SSS Gazette

The Official Monthly Newsletter of TRIO Student Support Services

Message from the Project Director

Family, we are so excited to tell you about the happenings in TRIO Student Support Services! As you know, I came on board in September 2019. It has taken some time to get oriented to grant work as I have spent less time with grant work and more time in roles of social justice and equality/social sciences professor, instructor, and K-12 teacher. I am a native of Wichita, Kansas and a graduate of Wichita State University as well as an alumnus of the Operation Success Project, now known as TRIO Student Support Services. Yes, I have been given the honor and privilege to return to Wichita, Kansas after three decades of traveling, studying, and working around the U.S., to direct the project that I am a product of.

When I was an undergraduate student at WSU, Operation Success threw me a lifeline. I was a first generation, limited income student, who essentially feared the university experience; yet I was courageous enough to walk three blocks from my house to attend WSU. It is a decision I have never regretted. Through Operation Success, I had a second family, academic advising, tutoring, the chance to attend cultural events and much more. Those who became vested in me earning a bachelor’s degree were Dr. Deema DeSilva, Dr. James Rhatigan, Ms. Deltha Q. Colvin, Mr. Larry Ramos, and Mrs. Francis Ervin. Even today, Ms. Colvin, Mr. Ramos and even Mrs. Ervin continue to be my mentors.

In 2020, Student Support Services began the process of more tightly aligning its mission, participation point requirements, and scholarship eligibility to the project’s origins. It was in 1968 that the SSS project came into existence as a federally funded program designed to provide educational opportunity for disadvantaged students.

Today, SSS continues to provide an educational opportunity for those who typically live in the margins of society, who are first-generation, limited income, and students of disability status. After SSS’s more than 50 years of helping participants to become job ready by earning a university degree, we have deepened the connection between the original mission of SSS (recruit, retain, and graduate) and the national dialogue on an array of educational issues, our world-wide pandemic, racial tensions, intense poverty, and much more. In our SSS project, participants read, reflect, and write on current social justice/life skills workshops. This is designed to help them learn skills that can cultivate an inclusive attitude in the workplace (work-based skills) and develop critical thinking skills, which both are a part of our competitive preference priorities (CPP’s) as set forth by the United States Department of Education.

Today, our SSS mission remains to recruit, retain, and graduate students; however, we are equally vested in nurturing change agents. Those who will not inherit an unjust society and keep silent. As they go to the workplace, we want our participants to be equipped with much more than a degree in hand. We assist them at developing a critical consciousness about what is happening I our society and peaceful ways to change it.

Most recently, we finished a descriptive study designed to assess how much a select group of SSS participants understood the connection between social justice, equity, and TRIO Student Support Services. We will share some of our findings at our May 14th workshop. For the duration of the 2020-2025 SSS grant cycle, we will select participants to participate in focus groups designed to assess how their connection between social justice, equity, and TRIO Student Support Services is maturing as the result of being exposed to our resources. In 2025, we will publish a book of our findings. For now, we will release a monograph annually.

I look forward to investing time and energy with the fabulous staff in SSS as we work to make SSS even more effective!

-Dr. Linda F. Rhone, Project Director

Meet Our New Communications/Marketing Specialist

I'm Chelsea Martinez and I currently serve as the Communications/Marketing/Academic Advising Specialist for TRIO Student Support Services. I'm an alumni of Wichita State University, completing my undergraduate degree in Integrated Marketing Communications which gave me an umbrella of communications and marketing skills from public relations, to copywriting and editing, advertising, and even graphic design.

-Chelsea Martinez, Communications/Marketing/Academic Advising Specialist

 

Meet Our New Advisors

I'm Karen Wright and I currently serve as the Assistant Director/Advisor, Tutor Coordinator and Scholarship Coordinator for TRIO Student Support Services. I'm an alumni of Kanas State University and Wichita State University, completing my undergraduate degree in Communications.

-Karen L. Wright, Assistant Director

I'm Kamika Thomas-Hicks and I currently serve as the Database Specialist/Advisor, I'm an alumna of Southern New Hampshire University, completing my undergraduate degree in Mathematics. My first exposure to TRIO Programs was when I was 6 years old, when my mom Rhonda Hicks was the Associate Director for Upward Bound Wichita Prep.

-Kamika Thomas-Hicks, Database Specialist

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