After 50 years at Knox College, the TRIO Achievement Program has started the school year off with new goals and initiatives that will help their students for the next 5-10 years.

Aside from the many services that TRIO is required to offer as a government-funded program, the executive director of TRIO Risa Lopez said that they plan on making big changes about the nature of the content they are showing within the curriculum over the upcoming years.

Having been with TRIO for 17 years, Lopez is very adamant about the value that the program has in helping students.

“TRIO is a service meant to help students not only graduate but also develop and grow as people,” Lopez said. “This is something we want to show by placing heavier prominence on career readiness as a way to show students a sneak peak of what happens after they cross the stage.”

The program’s current focus on career readiness relies heavily on the help of their alumni. According to Lopez, TRIO is currently in the process of collecting information from alumni to make profiles for students to ‘browse’ and see what each alumni’s major and job is. This way students can reach out, ask questions, or search for advice easily about what major or field they are interested in.

“We want to let students know that not every journey ends with a PHD and having no fears, and that there are more options to pursue besides the narrow pool of  teacher, lawyer, doctor, or nurse,” Lopez said.

To pair with this, Lopez also stated there are going to be small projects like podcasts where alumni can speak on their experiences and students can listen in and get clarity.

“Reconnecting with Alumni is not the only thing TRIO wants to add into the curriculum,” Lopez said. “We also wish to add a focus on “social emotional learning” within the academic experience.”

Lopez said that they wish to put more emphasis on teaching students about self awareness and managing overwhelming emotions.

“Some students have a hard time learning in the classroom or managing change,” Lopez said.

She hopes that through workshops and activities in and outside of the classroom, students can become more confident and flexible in making decisions that are out of their comfort zone.

Another goal is to implement more immersive experiences for internships and jobs. TRIO works to give students opportunities to make connections so they can form their paths towards career and post college interests. This also includes having students explore cultural differences, often with the help of study abroad programs, so they can see more than just the community they grew up in or the one they experienced at Knox.

Knox’s TRIO Program is one of the longest standing TRIO programs in the state, which is unique in the fact that it resides in a small liberal arts school in a small town. The incoming class for 2024-2025 is one of the largest classes Knox has had, and, within this class, 62 were students a part of TRIO.

Lopez hopes that as the years progress, the number of students in TRIO will continue to grow and that more and more students will find the help and support they need within the program.