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Rebecca “Becky” Chavez knows her climb to success was due in part to a federal program aimed at helping kids whose parents never got a four-year college degree.
Chavez is now the director of admissions and outreach at Front Range Community College Boulder County and she will soon oversee the same program that fueled her achievements — the TRIO program.
“This is now my opportunity to come full circle and serve other community college students,” Chavez said.
Chavez got help through Upward Bound, which is part of the TRIO Program, while she was a student at the Colorado State University. TRIO is being launched Monday at the Boulder County campus in Longmont and Chavez will supervise the $1.3 million five-year Student Support Services grant that funds TRIO.
TRIO is designed to identify and provide services for individuals who come from low-income families, have disabilities and whose parents do not have four-year college degrees.
Many Student Support Services alumni have gone on to great success over the years, according to a FRCC news release. They include Emmy, Tony and Academy-Award winning actress Viola Davis, U.S. Rep. Gwendolyn Moore of Wisconsin’s 4th District and Franklin Chang-Diaz, the first Hispanic astronaut, according to the release.
Carla Stein, dean of student affairs at the Boulder County Campus, said the TRIO program has a proven track record of success.
“The hashtag of the grant is #TRIOworks, because it does work for students,” Stein said.
In 2018-2019, 98% of students in TRIO at the FRCC Westminster campus completed the year in good academic standing, she said. Before the program began in 2015, only 49% of TRIO-eligible students returned for another year of college. For students who used TRIO services in 2018-2019, that year-to-year persistence rate rose to 89%.
Chavez, who is a first-generation college student, said she was able to realize her potential and obtain the skills and tools she needed to be successful in college.
“I got support from those mentors and the people who ran the program that got me in the career of education,” Chavez said. “I wouldn’t be where I am today without TRIO and Upward Bound.”
Chavez and Stein are in the process of hiring two other staff members who will work under the grant, Chavez said. One of the new hires will be bilingual.
The two women also said they are still working out the specifics on the program, including working with schools in the county and community organizations to identify and recruit eligible students.
Those considered for the program must be a student on the FRCC Boulder County Campus, and be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident. They also must be a first-generation student — with neither parent with a bachelor's degree — and federal Pell grant eligible. Or they must also have a documented disability.
Chavez said once new staff members are hired, the program will provide students with opportunities to job shadow, establish mentorships and provide some kind of career assistance for the type of work in which they are interested.
TRIO’s first group of students should arrive in November, Chavez said.
“This first group of students that come in will help us build the program to what it will become,” she said. “Students will help with the vision of what the program will look like.”
— Leader staff writer Silvia Solis contributed to this story.
Correction: Chaves atteneded the Colorado State University not the University of Colorado, Boulder.
