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TRIO Celebrates First-Generation College Day

Brandon Gaddy might be known around the Owens Community College campus as the director of the TRIO programs, but he also wants you to know something else – he’s a first-generation college graduate.

Gaddy and his TRIO staff were outside of the library in College Hall on Wednesday, November 13 to celebrate First-Generation College Celebration Day. Celebrated annually on November 8, the day recognizes the anniversary of the signing of the Higher Education Act in 1965, which expanded opportunities for low-income and first-generation students.

The TRIO programs were born out of that act. Including the Educational Opportunity Center (EOC), Student Support Services (SSS) and Veterans Upward Bound, the federally-funded TRIO programs are designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Among various giveaways available at the tables in College Hall were buttons that included the word “trailblazer,” which Gaddy thought was appropriate.

“You’re setting a path that no one has set before,” Gaddy said. “It’s hard to complete, but at the same time, when you find the right folks and right community, you can get through it pretty easily.”

According to Gaddy, it’s important to set up that community for a group of students who typically don’t have the support necessary or the knowledge to know what they’re doing.

“This is for us to show them there is a community outside of what they see,” Gaddy said. “This is an opportunity to show them there is support, there are resources like TRIO, SSS and EOC.

“Finding a way to help support each other, celebrate this identity and show them there is support there and create some kind of community.”

Information from the Center for First-Generation Student Success shows 26 percent of undergraduate students in 2019-20 had parents with no postsecondary education and 60 percent of students whose parents did not have a bachelor’s degree were also the first sibling in their family to go to college.

In the 2022-23 academic year, 29 percent of Owens students self-identified as first-generation. That same year, 60 percent of Owens graduates reported being first-generation college graduates.

It makes the work Gaddy and his TRIO staff do so vitally important for a large percentage of students. It’s also important for Gaddy to show some of the success stories of former TRIO students, including people like Oprah Winfrey, Viola Davis and Patrick Ewing.

“To see the people who have come through, it’s powerful,” Gaddy said. “It sets a precedent.”

For more information on the TRIO programs, please visit owens.edu/trio.