As the federally-funded Student Support Services (SSS) TRIO program celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2018, Arkansas Tech University student Malik Oliver can sum up what the initiative means to him in one word.
“It’s like a family,” said Oliver, a senior hospitality administration major from Russellville. “You know the people who are in here, and you realize how much you have in common with them. It builds connections and friendships. I probably wouldn’t be getting ready to graduate without it. I wouldn’t be as involved on campus, and my grades wouldn’t be as high as they are. I’m grateful for that.”
SSS was established in the 1968 re-authorization of the Higher Education Act as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s goal of seeing that “no American talent is wasted.”
Arkansas Tech has offered the SSS program on its campus since receiving an initial five-year grant in 2010. ATU received a second Student Support Services (SSS) grant in the amount of $220,000 per year for five years in 2015.
The funds allow Arkansas Tech to provide specialized services to current students who are first-generation college students from low-income families and current students who have disabilities evidencing academic need.
It was Oliver’s sister, former Arkansas Tech SSS participant Brittany Wolfe, who introduced him to the program.
“She was always telling me how they encouraged her to go to the library and to get her homework done, offering tutoring services and taking them on cultural trips to keep them engaged in the program,” said Oliver.
Wolfe encouraged Oliver to apply for SSS, and his life has been forever changed.
“It’s made me strive to be better,” said Oliver, who plans on pursuing a master’s degree in college student personnel. “To have people who really care about you, want to see you graduate and want to make sure you stay on track to graduate is an amazing thing. It’s made me want to be a better person and make better grades. My tutors encourage me to do better, and it’s just an awesome feeling because not everyone has that opportunity.”
Dana Olvera of Dover views the opportunity provided by SSS through two lenses: student and parent. She is a senior accounting major and participant in the Arkansas Tech SSS program. Her daughter, Rachel Olvera, is a freshman biochemistry major at ATU and fellow SSS member.
“We get to come in here and study together when we can, and the staff helps (Rachel) work through her schedule in areas that I don’t know because she is a different major than I am,” said Olvera. “They are going to take care of her better than I could. The fact that someone is looking after my child and helping her further herself is very reassuring.”
Three alumnae of Arkansas Tech administer the program on campus. Lori Wineland serves as SSS director, while Lindsey Riedmueller and Nichole Edwards are SSS advisors.
They are responsible for ensuring that the 140 Tech students selected for the program each year have access to academic tutoring and advising, financial aid information, personal counseling, information about applying for graduate and professional schools and career services.
“The support is really top notch,” said Olvera, who will graduate in December 2019 with plans on becoming a Certified Public Accountant with her own office. “You can be having a bad day…come in here, they pick you up off the floor, encourage you to keep going and help you find something to change that situation. It’s been amazing. I’d be struggling without this program. It’s been a mainstay for me in a lot of situations. SSS and Tech have both been very good to me. It’s opened my eyes to a whole new world, and I’ve just really appreciated it, academically and socially. I never realized the bonds you form in college. I don’t know if it’s the time you spend with people or the associations, but I just love it.”
Current Arkansas Tech students who are interested in gaining more information about applying for the program may visit www.atu.edu/sss.
For more information about the 50th anniversary of SSS, visit www.coenet.org/sss_50th_anniversary.shtml.
Photographed: Arkansas Tech University Student Support Services alumna Esther White (seated, left) looks at ATU SSS scrapbooks with current students Dana Olvera (seated, middle) and Malik Oliver (seated, right) as well as ATU SSS staff members (standing, from left) Lori Wineland, Lindsey Riedmueller and Nichole Edwards.
