On April 10, the Walter and Myrtle Powers Reading Room in Hargreaves Hall will be filled with Trio students sharing their recent service learning projects, research projects and other projects with notable community involvement.

“Trio Day is a national celebration,” said Aimee Cervenka, retention specialist at the Academic Success Center. “The purpose of Trio Day itself is to raise awareness of Trio, the purpose that it serves and how it is effective at helping students.”

Trio is made up of several different programs, including the McNair Program and Student Support Services, which are the two Trio programs offered at Eastern. More than 300 EWU students are involved with these programs.

Cervenka works specifically with Student Support Services. “[It] focuses on serving undergraduate students who are identified typically as at-risk populations,” she said. “Those are students with low income, first generation students — so neither of their parents earned a bachelor’s degree — or students with a registered disability.”

Qualified students can benefit from one-on-one advising, classes aimed at the development of learning skills to succeed in college, workshops and other academic assistance.

The McNair program assists first-generation college students and those generally underrepresented in graduate studies who are in pursuit of post-baccalaureate degrees.

“They look at helping track undergraduate students into Ph.D. programs. They identify students in their sophomore or junior year who are interested in getting a Ph.D., then they provide that support to help them get there,” Cervenka said.

Trio students from both programs will present various projects and activities they have recently been involved with at the student expo.

“We’re just trying to get a nice overview of what our students are doing, and trying to focus more on what they’re doing rather than this is what Trio is and what it does,” Cervenka said. “We’re trying to put more faces to the program.”

Erika Enciso is a junior studying secondary education who has been involved with Trio since she came to Eastern.

“Before coming to Eastern, I was contacted by one of the advisers inviting me to be a part of the program, and as an incoming freshman I saw it as a great opportunity,” she said. “So when I came to Eastern I went to the office, and two years later I am still involved with them.”

Enciso will be part of a group sharing their experience as ambassadors of Leap, the Latino Educational Achievement Program.

“We will have a table with different type of information about Leap, and we will be sharing our experiences as ambassadors and answer any questions that students might have,” she said.

The expo will also feature student speakers and Trio alumni speakers, as well as an opening word from EWU President Dr. Rodolfo Arévalo.