Centralia College will receive nearly $1.3 million over a five-year period from the U.S. Department of Education to support the TRIO Upward Bound program for high school students in Lewis and South Thurston counties.
Upward Bound currently serves 50 high school students in Centralia, Rochester and Toledo. The students are all low-income or have parents with no bachelor’s degrees, according to a press release from the college.
“These funds allow us to provide academic monitoring and advising, career exploration, and help with college planning and applications or with financial aid and scholarships,” Liisa Preslan, Centralia College TRIO director, said. “Students with this additional support experience higher graduation rates and are twice as likely to attend college than similar students without support. It changes lives.”
Over the last three years, 98 percent of Upward Bound students graduated from high school and 86 percent went onto college, according to the release.
Centralia College has offered the program since 2007.
This is the third TRIO program funded in the last three years at the college. The TRIO programs — Upward Bound, Student Support Services and Talent Search — have received close to $5 million to provide support for more than 1,000 middle school, high school and college students annually.
For more information on the TRIO programs at Centralia College, call 360-623-8968 or visit www.centralia.edu/students/TRIO.
