Members of the 818th Engineering Company of the North Dakota Army National Guard, former U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad and a host of students throughout the state were honored at NDSU. A TRIO Day awards banquet was held Wednesday, April 17, in the Memorial Union Great Plains Ballroom.

TRIO Programs prepare students for successful entry, retention and completion of post-secondary education. The programs identify low-income and first-generation college students who show potential for success and provide them with encouragement, support and assistance. NDSU has hosted TRIO Programs since 1967.

“The goal is to celebrate the students and friends of TRIO,” said Aida Martinez-Freeman, assistant TRIO director and project director for Student Support Services at NDSU. “We want to highlight the contributions the programs make on our campus and in our communities. Most importantly, we will showcase the success of the students we serve.”

Veterans Upward Bound
NDSU is celebrating 40 years of Veterans Upward Bound on campus. The program aids veterans hoping to return to college with the transition process through intensive basic skills development and short-term remedial courses.

NDSU Veterans Upward Bound and the Equity and Diversity Center coordinated two winter letter-writing campaigns and collected donations for the 818th Engineering Company of the North Dakota Army National Guard. In early December, two of the unit’s soldiers died and another was injured while serving in Afghanistan. The unit recently returned to North Dakota. Headquartered in Williston, the unit has 35 NDSU graduates. 

Three students received Veterans Upward Bound Achiever recognition.

• Rawl Anthony Goodridge, who served in the U.S. Navy, is a freshman majoring in veterinary technology at NDSU.
• Charles Pegg, a Valley City, N.D., native, served in the North Dakota Army National Guard and attends the University of North Dakota School of Law. 
• Jason Cooper, a Phoenix, Ariz., native, served in the U.S. Air Force and is majoring in criminal justice and forensic science at UND.

Friend of TRIO Award
The Friend of TRIO Award, presented to entities or individuals who have shown extraordinary support for TRIO programs, was presented to former U.S. Sen. Kent Conrad.

McNair Scholars Program
McNair Scholars displayed poster boards based on their research. The Ronald E. McNair Postbaccalaureate Achievement Program encourages and prepares low-income and minority students for doctoral study and to pursue careers in college teaching. The program provides research opportunities and faculty mentoring.

• Erin Cox, who graduated from NDSU in 1998 with a Bachelor of Science in biology, received the McNair Scholars Program Achiever award. She earned a master’s degree in water resources science in 2000 at the University of Minnesota.

Upward Bound
Upward Bound is an intensive intervention program that prepares students for higher education through various enrichment courses. 

• Anna Charles, BS ’12, nursing, received Upward Bound Achiever recognition. She attended Upward Bound monthly during the summer. “The staff was always ready to assist students who struggled with assignments and they were good role models as well,” Charles said. She is a registered nurse at Essentia Health in Fargo.
• Maren Kramer, a social worker serving English Language Learners in Fargo Public Schools, received Upward Bound Booster recognition.

Student Support Services
Student Support Services programs help low-income and first-generation students to successfully begin and stay in college. Participants receive tutoring, counseling and remedial instruction to achieve their goals of college completion.

• Koos Sharif received Student Support Services Achiever recognition. She graduated from NDSU in 2012 with a degree in apparel, retail merchandising and design. Sharif and her family fled Mogadishu in 1991 as Somalia became embroiled in a civil war. Since arriving in the United States in 1997, she has worked as a refugee health care coordinator and interpreter in Fargo and as a bilingual specialist for Rochester Public Schools.
• Bunnie Johnson-Messelt, director of disability services at NDSU, received the Student Support Services Leadership Award.

Andrew Puckett, a senior majoring in emergency management, emceed the event. He has benefited from the support of Student Support Services. In 2011 he began giving back by tutoring students. “Not only has my hard work paid off in terms of grades, but I am able to pass that knowledge on to other students through tutoring,” Puckett said. “It has given me joy and satisfaction in watching my own students grown, but also giving me a very large number of transferable skills that will aid me in my future endeavors.”

NDSU is recognized as one of the nation's top 108 public and private universities by the Carnegie Commission on Higher Education.