Anoka-Ramsey Community College (ARCC) will host on Saturday, Feb. 4, a statewide celebration of TRIO, the federally funded student support programs for disadvantaged students. Called TRIO Day 2006, the invitation-only event will offer speakers, workshops and a college fair to more than 600 students and staff from 15 TRIO programs around Minnesota.

TRIO is designed to enable success in college for students who come from a low-income family, and/or students who come from a family where neither parent graduated from college. Administered by the U.S. Department of Education, TRIO programs offer such services as tutoring, academic advising, career counseling, summer academic programs, and more. They assist students from middle school on up through college.

TRIO Day 2006 will offer attendees workshops on everything from financial planning, to risk-taking through education, to studying abroad, to self-understanding, and more. In addition, representatives from 32 colleges will be on hand to meet with prospective students.

The Keynote speaker for the event will be Elona Street-Stewart, the current chair of the Saint Paul School Board. Street-Stewart also serves as chair of the Minnesota Education Partnership, chair of the American Indian Family Center, and president-elect of the national American Indian Alaska Native School Board Caucus. The first American Indian to serve on the board of an urban school district in Minnesota, she is a former TRIO student herself.

ARCC’s Director of TRIO Program Cindy Nutter was selected as chair of Minnesota TRIO Day 2006 by the Minnesota Association of Education Opportunity Program Personnel (MnAEOPP). Funding for the event has been provided by MnAEOPP and a grant from the Intervention for College Attendance Program (ICAP).