A TRIO Student Support Services grant of $1,361,820 from the U.S. Department of Education awarded to Central Oregon Community College will provide 140 low-income, first-generation students per year with specialized supports to help them graduate from COCC and transfer to a four-year university. The grant began on Sept. 25 and will continue for four years, pending congressional approval after year one. This is COCC’s first-ever TRIO grant, and the college joins 10 other Oregon community colleges and eight Oregon four-year universities in offering these programs.
“TRIO students have incredibly high persistence and completion rates,” said grant lead Andrew Davis, dean of student engagement at COCC. “Selected applicants will be assigned a success coach, and then have access to wraparound services like designated tutors, transfer-degree workshops, tours of universities and other supportive, motivational resources.”
The Oregon TRIO Association states in its 2025 report that 77% of participating students in the 2023-24 year graduated with a bachelor’s in six years.
COCC’s TRIO Student Support Services grant will primarily fund dedicated staff to assist students, including a project director, student success coaches and several tutors. The team will advise and encourage students as they complete their studies at COCC and move on to a four-year university. COCC also received a grant from the State of Oregon’s First-Generation Student Success program that will fund a portion of the TRIO program.
Today’s TRIO programs align three well-established federal educational initiatives, the first of which originated with the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964, all designed to serve disadvantaged students. TRIO, which now includes nine separate grant programs, is credited with identifying the concept of the “first-generation” college student — “an individual whose parents did not complete a baccalaureate degree” — first introduced in 1980.
TRIO programs enjoy widespread bipartisan support in Congress and have been consistently funded by the federal government since their inception in 1964. Notable alumni of TRIO support include Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., first Hispanic NASA astronaut Franklin Chang Díaz and NBA All-Star Patrick Ewing.
According to a report from the Council for Opportunity in Education, 45.6% of TRIO participants at two-year institutions completed an associate degree or transferred to a four-year institution, compared with 31.4% of eligible nonparticipants.
For COCC’s 2024-25 academic year, more than 26% of credit students identified as first-generation and 23% identified as low-income.
For more information, contact Andrew Davis, dean of student engagement, at 541-383-7592 or apdavis@cocc.edu.
