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>> Hello, my name is Laura Larpenteur and I'm the advisor
for TRiO Student Support Services at Oklahoma City Community College.
>> My name is Allison and I am a peer mentor at TRiO and I'm an English literature major here
at OCCC and I'll be graduating in May.
>> I'm here daily, yeah if it's locked I go next door and I'm like I need you
to unlock the door because I need to use the computer.
>> TRiO Student Support Services is a federally funded grant program that works
to help students be successful in college.
We work with 160 students per year and students can qualify in any one of three ways.
They can be a first generation college student,
meet certain low income requirements or have a documented disability.
And so since different students have different needs we try to provide a lot
of different services to help you be successful.
>> Yeah for the computer lab if you need to print or do homework when you're there,
if they need peer mentoring or counseling we're also there, myself and Jennifer um,
are the two peer mentors that we have at TRiO and you know it's real casual
so the students can come in and talk to us if they need advice or need help planning something
with school or have questions about what courses to take, we're there for them.
>> They guide me so much with so many different things like as far as tutor goes, mentoring,
taking me by my hand and showing me the way if I didn't have them I'd probably be kind of thrown
to the wolves and have to like figure it out on my own and be stuck.
>> We also provide transfer assistance.
We take our own transfer trips to different universities around the area.
>> And we can help you with the application process or looking for scholarships
or just anything that you need to transfer on once you're done here
at OCCC with your associate's degree.
>> You know being in college is such a confusing time in a student's life that there are
so many directions that they're pulled, like if their parents want them to do a certain thing
or they want to do a different thing it's just trying to find who you are,
that's why we're there just to like help students
and it's just...it's a great opportunity for me to kind of like grow with the program
and also like I learn a lot about myself.
>> I feel like sometimes there's a little bit of an untapped resource here at OCCC
because I think people see the signs but they're not familiar with it and unless I was introduced
by somebody that's part of it, I feel like I wouldn't have been part of it
but it's definitely a good program to be part of.
>> One of the things that I really enjoy about working here at TRiO SSS is the opportunity
to meet with students and to help them realize their academic potential.
A lot of times students come in and they don't think they have what it takes to be successful
in college or to reach their goals.
But they really do and so I really enjoy helping them figure out what tools they need
to reach those goals and helping them utilize that
and so that's something that's very rewarding for me.
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