On Aug. 28, Spring Hill College announced that the school received a Student Support Service (SSS) Trio grant which will help students toward their graduation.

This is first year for SHC to receive a grant from SSS and it can be renewed for up to five years. SSS helps college students who are low income, first-generation (those whose parents do not have a four-year college degree) or students with disabilities. This grant will allow Spring Hill to provide tutoring, mentoring, workshops, financial planning and other support services for up to 140 students annually.

“With all of them, you get extra support,” said Ashley Dunklin regarding students with low income, students with disabilities and first-generation students. Dunklin is a Student Success Coach at SHC. “You have that go-to person when you don’t understand something; similar to success coaches on campus but these will be their success coaches to help them with their specific issues. You can get tutoring even beyond what is already on campus or guidance or counseling.”

“Accessibility to Spring Hill College’s Jesuit, Catholic education is one of our administration’s number one priorities,” said President E. Joseph Lee II, PhD. “A student who has potential to change our world for the better should not miss that opportunity and this grant will ensure we can provide the best education possible.” Lee added that having the grant funded on the first attempt at the application was a particularly successful factor. “I continue to be so proud of our staff and faculty who seek out and do the research so that the College can offer these incredible opportunities.

SSS recognizes that students whose parents do not have a college degree have more difficulties navigating the complexity of decisions that college requires for success; it bolsters students from low income families who have not had the academic opportunities that their college peers have had and helps students with disabilities remove obstacles preventing them from thriving academically.

“We hired a director. Her name is Dr. Chrishan Watson,” Dunklin said. “She is going to be the new director for the program and we will be hiring a coordinator to go with it, along with some professional tutors in other part-time positions that, for right now, the office will probably go to the library where the CAE used to be.”