UIW Awarded $1.4 Million Grant to continue TRIO Student Support Services

Federal Grant will help support First-Generation, Low-Income and Students with Disabilities

San Antonio– July 28, 2025 – The University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) is proud to announce that the U.S. Department of Education has awarded UIW a federal TRIO Student Support Services (SSS) grant totaling more than $1.4 million. The grant will be used over the next five years to improve college retention and graduation rates among low-income, first-generation students and students with disabilities.

This award marks the continuation of more than two decades of TRIO SSS services on the UIW campus. Since 2001, the program has served approximately 200 students annually, helping them stay in school, earn degrees and build meaningful careers.

Through individualized services including academic tutoring, financial aid, scholarship guidance, career exploration, personal and academic counseling, and mentoring, TRIO SSS empowers students to overcome barriers to success. These comprehensive supports make it significantly more likely that students will complete their degree or successfully transfer, with the lowest possible debt.

“It means so much to us to be able to provide extra individualized support to students that may not have grown up with guidance towards completing a college degree,” says Wynette Hadnott Keller, director of UIW TRIO Student Support Services. “We are the bridge to graduation that our students need! We look forward to continuing to join forces with UIW faculty, administrators and staff to make sure our TRIO students know that they belong and can succeed at UIW!”

Nationally, the SSS program has a proven track record. According to a rigorous 2019 evaluation by the U.S. Department of Education, students at four-year institutions were 18% more likely to earn a bachelor’s degree compared to similar peers not in the program. At UIW, 95% of students in the program end each semester in good academic standing, 96% are retained at the institution year to year and are 15% more likely to graduate on time than non-TRIO students.

“TRIO programs generally and TRIO SSS programs, in particular, transforms students from the least resourced backgrounds into college graduates,” says Kimberly Jones, president of the Council for Opportunity in Education in Washington, D.C. “This vital program makes all the difference for nearly a million students each year across the country.”

SSS is one of eight federal TRIO programs funded under the Higher Education Act of 1965 to remove social, academic and cultural barriers to higher education. Since its inception in 1968, SSS has helped millions of low-income, first-generation students graduate from college and contribute to their communities and the economy.