TRIO Students Shadow State Legislators and Attend College Access Breakfast

Six local high school students, participants in TRIO programs at the UC Clermont College, shadowed state legislators recently. They also attended the Partners in College Access and Success Policy Breakfast at the State House in Columbus.

The purposes of the breakfast were to highlight the importance of college access and success in Ohio and to emphasize the partnership of many organizations working together to help more Ohioans enter and succeed in college. The Ohio TRIO programs were among the seven partner organizations that sponsored the breakfast.

TRIO Educational Talent Search students Courtney Mulvaney and Tyler Nants of Goshen High School shadowed State Sen. Tom Niehaus along with Educational Advisor Shari Taylor. 

TRIO Educational Talent Search students Amanda Biggs of Grant Career Center and Joshua Kochensparger of Felicity-Franklin High School shadowed State Rep. Joe Uecker along with Educational Advisor Tonya O’Brien.

TRIO Upward Bound students Jami Lyons of Western Brown High School and Monique Payne of Amelia High School shadowed State Rep. Danny Bubp along with Student Development Specialist Amy Thomas. 

The keynote speaker at the breakfast was Ohio Treasurer Kevin Boyce. Treasurer Boyce spoke of the challenges of being the first member of his family to go to college and described how he was empowered by college access advisors to make his way in the world. Gov. Strickland sent a proclamation recognizing College Access Day in Ohio.

Also accompanying the students was Dan Schneider, Director of TRIO Educational Talent Search & Upward Bound at UC Clermont, who pioneered the state legislative breakfast as a TRIO event five years ago when he served as President of Ohio TRIO. Two years ago the breakfast format was expanded to focus on the partnership of a variety of college access and success organizations that work together in Ohio.

TRIO programs are federally funded programs that open doors to college opportunity and support educational enrichment and achievement. Educational Talent Search works with students in grades six through 12 and Upward Bound works with high school students.