“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, feed him for a lifetime,” says Derrick Brown Campus Grants Officer and Project Director for the TRIO Student Support Services Program. TRIO is a districtwide program located at all Hillsborough Community College campuses.

  The TRIO program is designed to help disadvantaged students who are either from low-income families, or first generational college students. TRIO helps with services such as tutoring, navigating the campus and to ultimately help them transfer to a four year institution and obtain a degree.

  Brown stresses to all students he meets that after college there is a highly competitive corporate world out there. Which is why he emphasizes that extreme importance of educating students about the business world.

  The central office for TRIO is located on the Ybor campus and other office is located on the Dale Mabry campus. Services are offered to all students.

  First, students should check to see if they qualify for TRIO services as there is a waiting list. In order to be eligible for TRIO, one must be of low income, a first generation college student or be disabled.

  TRIO enrolls a major intake of students in the fall, while in the spring, the number of new members is reduced. Brown says one of his career highlights with TRIO came on Thanksgiving of 2014 when he received a letter from Gary Welch, a former student, who had been a member of TRIO.

  The letter was to thank Brown and his staff and to show his gratitude for all that they had helped him with. Welch received his doctorate, and is now a certified medical doctor.

  TRIO recently reached the amount of students needed to qualify for more financial assistance, and received a $1.5 million grant to continue helping students and to expand services to all campuses.

  Brown intends on using this grant to reach more students for the program, and extend services to the Southshore, Plant City and Brandon campuses.

  The money is expected to last until 2020. This amount of money is not given out for free; certain criteria must be met. Brown states one criteria is “to increase the number of students we are serving.”

  Brown and his staff must meet annual objectives that he and his co-workers have set for TRIO, and these objectives are performance based. Most importantly, TRIO must track how many students graduated and how many graduates transfer to a four year institution.

  The Brandon, Southshore and Plant City campuses will also be included in the grant. Initially, 25 TRIO student slots are offered at each of the campuses.

  Brown believes the expansion will pay off, “In the next five years, I see TRIO persisting. It is important to work very hard on the outset [of the semester] to complete these outcome objectives.”

  If a student feels he meets TRIO’s criteria, and could use some assistance, be sure to meet the TRIO staff and visit their office.