U.S. Rep. Jerry Moran came to Emporia State University on Friday to celebrate its TRIO programs and join in the chartering of a new academic honor society.
TRIO gets its name from the three programs that recruit and support first-generation college students: Upward Bound, Student Support Services and Talent Search. Moran, a first-generation student himself, praised TRIO in a lunch at the ESU Memorial Union.
“As a member of Congress, we’re constantly asked to appropriate other people’s money for programs,” said Moran, a Kansas Republican. “This is the sort of thing you like to see it spent on. ... This is the kind of thing that turns people’s lives around.”
Three ESU students also offered their thanks to TRIO for giving them a fresh start. Juliet Wesley nearly had her schooling derailed by a high-school pregnancy. Janet Laird dropped out within nine weeks of her high-school graduation and struggled with alcoholism. Audanelle Lester came from an abusive family and helped seven foster kids through college before she ever attended herself.
“These people are wonderful,” Lester said, indicating the TRIO personnel. “They’ve helped me realize I can accomplish anything, that I don’t just have to exist, but I can live. And I want to live.”
All three were among the charter members of the Epsilon Epsilon chapter of Chi Alpha Epsilon, ESU’s newest honor society. Moran was also inducted as a member.
Moran urged the new members to consider teaching, a profession that he said needed the best and the brightest.
“I ask people all the time to name someone who made a difference in their lives, and I anxiously await the first person to say ‘A congressman,’” Moran said, laughing along with the audience.
“But if it’s not Mom and Dad, it’s a teacher.
“It would be easy for me to become discouraged about the things that happen in the world,” he added more seriously. “But looking at these students ... you give me hope that good things still will happen.”