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St. Olaf junior speaks in D.C. on behalf of Minnesota TriO programs

By Clare Kennedy '07
March 31, 2005

Jonathan Tischler, a junior from St. Paul, Minn., was selected out of hundreds of students statewide as the Minnesota TRiO student representative at the 2005 National Council for Opportunity in Education Policy Seminar.

TRiOinWash
Meeting with Sen. Coleman while lobbying for TRiO programs were (L-R) Tischler, Kathy Glampe '92, Rietta Turner (Carleton), Ben Dieterich '01, Jonathan Aldana '02, Sen. Coleman, Claudia Perez, Yesenia Velazquez '03 and Dan Jackson '00.
He and two Student Support Services staff members, Jonathan Aldana and director Kathy Glampe, traveled to Washington, D.C. on March 13-16 to attend the seminar, where they met with congressional representatives to discuss the importance of the federally funded TRiO programs.

These programs include Upward Bound, Educational Talent Search, Student Support Services and Gear Up. Since 1989, the Education Department at St. Olaf has sponsored the TRiO programs which help students overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers to obtaining higher education. These programs were threatened with possible budget cuts.

"Going into the seminar I was nervous about the possibility of the programs being cut," says Tischler. "We met with Senator [Norm] Coleman, and it was comforting to hear of his support for the TRiO programs."

The Kennedy amendment was presented on March 17, which would allow the proposed budget cuts to be restored. The amendment passed 51 percent to 49 percent.

Contact Carole Engblom at 507-646-3271 or leigh@stolaf.edu.