Angela Beard tried to keep her composure, but her emotions were too strong and her eyes glossed over with tears.

“Let’s get it together,” she told herself. “I’m trying to put into words,” she said, trailing off through her tears again.

Beard will graduate next Saturday, and she credits her success to the help she received from the Trio program.

The end of the semester has brought her to the end of a journey she began a long time ago, and she’s unsure of what the next journey will hold for her without the Trio program.

Beard, a senior communications disorder major, has been involved with student support services since middle school, but she will leave them behind when she moves to Washington, D.C. for graduate school at Howard University in the fall.

“I’ve come so far with the support services, and now I’m afraid of what’s next,” Beard said.

The support services like Talent Search, Upward Bound and Trio are designed to support low-income and first-generation college students through college. Trio is the college level program and serves 175 students at Eastern each year.

The federally funded program is located at 9th Street Hall and provides tutors, advisers, counseling, workshops, leadership development and cultural activities for students in the program. Its goal is to increase students’ GPAs and graduation rates through support and availability to the students.

“Trio for me has been a home away from home,” Beard said. She spends six to eight hours a week in the Trio office using the computer lab or visiting with the staff.

“It has helped because I’ve never been away from home,” she said. “Sometimes I come in here (the office) just to talk.”

“Trio is a supportive program here on campus for students who meet the eligibility criteria,” said Trio director Maggie Burkhead.

Eastern’s program was started in 1997 and serves the first 175 students who apply to enter the program each year.

When students are accepted to the program, they are assigned to an adviser, and possibly a mentor as well.

“(The staff is) a sounding board, a word of encouragement for the student,” Burkhead said.

While Trio provides academic and financial support through scholarships for the students, their biggest impact seems to be through the human connection.

“I’ve had students referred to us by other departments because this student hasn’t made a connection yet,” Burkhead said. Those connections help students stick it out through school until graduation, she said.

“We’re really trying to get them prepared for higher academics and life outside of college,” Burkhead said. “Trio is helping students to see and recognize their own full potential.”

Beard has found her potential and is running with it.

“If you set a goal you can achieve it, and I have through the student support services,” she said. “It has helped me see that I can achieve a goal and not to give up no matter what.

“My parents’ don’t have bachelor’s degrees. I was given the opportunity to do something they weren’t. I just get emotional because I’ve come so far.”