Coming full circle: Kaitlin DeMarcus’ journey to growing ‘small but mighty’ TRIO programs in Alaska

 

Like some students, Kaitlin DeMarcus didn’t attend college always knowing exactly what her path would be. When enrolling at UAA, all she knew was that she wanted to earn a master’s degree — it was just a matter of finding some inspiration to guide her in the right direction.

That inspiration happened to be the TRIO programs at UAA, which are federal outreach and student services programs under the U.S. Department of Education. According to DeMarcus, who is currently the director of TRIO Upward Bound, TRIO as a whole is the original umbrella model for college access, dating back more than 60 years. Programs range from Upward Bound to Student Support Services and are designed for those who are first-generation college students, face income limitations or have disabilities.

DeMarcus moved to Alaska when she was in second grade, living in places all over the state, ranging from Eagle River to Utqiagvik, where she attended high school. After leaving Alaska to study at Colorado State University, she returned home in 2009 and began working for the Anchorage School District at Clark Middle School. From there, DeMarcus transitioned to Educational Talent Search (ETS), a TRIO program, working as an advisor to middle and high school students.

While there are eight total types of TRIO programs, Alaska only has two: UAA and UAF each house an Upward Bound and a Student Support Services program. ETS and Educational Opportunity Center (EOC) at UAA closed down in 2016 when their grants were not renewed, sparking in DeMarcus a desire to make a change in both her career and her education.

“It was just really devastating… [ETS] was serving over 750 students in the Anchorage School District in seven different middle and high schools,” she said. “So it was just a really big hit to the community to lose a program like that, and I think that’s what really fueled my fire to push to grow programming here in Anchorage.”

Along with ETS serving over 750 students, EOC served over 1,200 individuals in the community.

DeMarcus described these events as coming together “at a perfect time” where she wanted to finish another degree and continue developing college access programs. Adding to her bachelor's degree in international studies and language, literatures and cultures with an emphasis in Spanish from CSU, she started working toward her master’s in teaching and learning at UAA. While a student, she and Kelly Foran, who was an advisor for ETS at the time, took a chance and wrote proposals to restart Upward Bound in Anchorage since it hadn’t existed in the community for several years.

Fortunately, the program received funding. DeMarcus graduated in fall 2017 and then jumped right into building Upward Bound from scratch the following spring. Because of her journey as a student at UAA, she said, DeMarcus has felt better-equipped to guide students in the program with their own college progress.

“I think my experience both outside of the state and then also being a UAA student has helped a lot because it gives me the firsthand experience of what students are navigating here and what the barriers can be,” she explained.

She also noted Upward Bound students are not required to attend UAA, but many of them do.

DeMarcus’ ultimate vision is to continue expanding TRIO programs in Alaska. She said there are a number of things that hinder the growth of TRIO in the state such as a lack of familiarity with the programs and decreased accessibility to resources for training related to writing TRIO grants. Still, she and other TRIO professionals are continuing to assess and improve their student-focused services as the end of the program’s five-year grant cycle approaches (Upward Bound is currently in its third year of the cycle).

“We’re in a constant state of evaluation, so we’re always looking at what we’re doing, what’s working, and what’s not working,” DeMarcus said.

While the program continues to develop each year, it maintains partnerships with local services and organizations that also serve students in Anchorage. DeMarcus noted strong relationships with UAA programs like Alaska Middle College and Career and Exploration Services as well as external organizations such as United Way of Anchorage and Story Works Alaska. She described the TRIO programs in Alaska as “small but mighty” because despite how few there are in the state, the network of TRIO professionals work collaboratively to do a lot for their students, putting together field trips to other campuses or hosting hands-on activities with UAA departments.

For DeMarcus, TRIO has come full circle: her mother used to work for a TRIO program in North Carolina when she was born, and having just returned from maternity leave, her own baby was born into the TRIO family at UAA as well. It’s a connection DeMarcus didn’t know about when she fell in love with this career but developing these programs in Alaska and at UAA has become more than just a job – it’s become her lifestyle.

“I feel like TRIO professionals are drawn to TRIO because they’re people that care about this line of work,” she said. “It’s kind of our motto that we’re the TRIO family. You know, we treat each other like that, and we want our students to feel like that in our program.”

Written by Mariah DeJesus-Remaklus, UAA Office of University Advancement

From Feb. 10 through Feb. 14, UAA’s TRIO Programs are celebrating TRIO National Day of Service with a week full of events to bring awareness and advocate for TRIO Programs. The day of service will take place on Friday, Feb. 14, from 1-2:30 p.m. in the Student Union Den with cake, entertainment and awards. For questions or to RSVP, please email Kaitlin at kbdemarcus@alaska.edu.