Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
A.D. Johnston High School sophomores Makayla Montgomery, 15, and Ethan Auftencamp, 15, get seated on a charter bus outside the school in Bessemer Thursday morning as Keweenaw TRIO advisor Michelle Jacob from Finlandia University checks on other students on the bus. The bus planned to make stops to picked up other Upper Peninsula students who are participating in Trio pre-college programs, on their way to Ann Arbor for a student leadership summit at the University of Michigan. Other Bessemer students participating include Emily Johnston, 16, Elaina Johnston, 16, Josh Ollanketo, 17, and Ava Ledin, 16.
By CHARITY SMITH
Bessemer - Eleven high school students in Gogebic and Ontonagon counties will participate in the Michigan College Access Program Personnel Student Leadership Summit at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor this week, as part of the TRIO pre-college programs. This includes six students from Bessemer, one from Wakefield-Marenisco, one from Ewen-Trout Creek and three from Ontonagon.
In total, the Keweenaw TRIO Upward Bound and TRIO Talent Search programs took 54 students representing school districts in Gogebic, Ontonogan, Houghton, Baraga, Iron and Keweenaw counties. Keweenaw TRIO is based at Finlandia University and is aimed at pre-college ages students. The students left via charter bus on Thursday morning and will return on Sunday evening. The TRIO program pays for the students' expenses of transportation, hotel and meals.
According to a press release, the summit brings students from all over Michigan together to strengthen leadership skills and celebrate accomplishments. The conference will have keynote speakers, workshops, and activities. Along with attending the conference, the students will also tour the university and area museums.
"The Student Leadership Summit is a great opportunity for our students to enhance their leadership skills, meet other TRIO students, learn about new cultures, and attend workshops that will increase their academic and social awareness to become better students in high school, college and life," said Dave Kamrad, director of the TRIO Pre-College Programs, in a press release.
The group will also speak with members of the university's U.P. Scholars program - comprised of students from the U.P. enrolled at the university.
"This is pretty exciting for us because we haven't been able to go on a trip for two years," said Catherine Jordan, academic advisor for Keweenaw TRIO Talent Search at Finlandia in Hancock.
She said they generally take at least two trips a year, but have not been able to because of the pandemic. She said the trips usually start as tour of a local college and as the students age, the trips get further away and longer.
According to a press release TRIO Pre-College Programs exists to empower potential first-generation students and/or students from income eligible homes to be successful in middle and high school and prepare for college.
"Somebody can be in a TRIO program from middle school through getting a doctorate, depending on where they go to college. There may or may not be a TRIO program there to assist them," said Jordan.
There are three main types of TRIO federally funded programs - Talent Search, Upward Bound, and Student Support Services - hence where it got its name. The Talent Search program is for students in grades 6-12 and provides the students with tutoring, as well as opportunities to learn about future scholastic opportunities. Trio Upward bound is for high school students and has more activities for students including study labs, tutoring and a summer program, and can provide them with a monthly stipend in exchange for good grades. The Student Support Services is for college students.
"We like to say that talent search is more of an informational program, even though we provide opportunities for travel and things of that nature," said Jordan. "But with Upward Bound, their opportunities are greater per month since the students can do after school study sessions, they can get stipends for their grades and they do cultural activities."
The Keweenaw TRIO pre-college programs are already gearing up for their next trip which will be a spring break trip to East Lansing for an off-Broadway production of "Hamilton," and a tour of Grand Valley State University in Allendale, near Grand Rapids.
For more information about the Keweenaw TRIO pre-college programs, visit keweenawtrio.org.
