Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Young Named TRIO Achiever

A Gurdon resident has been honored as the Arkansas Association of Student Assistance Program (AASAP) TRIO Achiever.

Lavinia Young, a graduate of Ouachita Baptist University and former Gurdon resident, received the honor during the annual AASAP conference at the Holiday Inn Select in Little Rock recently.

She was selected as the TRIO Achiever from a field of nominees representing most of the colleges and universities in Arkansas.

Young was also recently honored as a TRIO Achiever for the Southwest Arkansas Association of Student Assistance Programs (SWASAP). She received this honor during the annual SWASAP conference, also in Little Rock.

The association is comprised of universities and colleges representing the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Texas.

The presentation was made to Young during the annual TRIO Achievers banquet.

As a student at Gurdon High School and OBU, Young participated in the Classic Upward Bound Program, Student Support Services Program and the Ronald McNair Post Baccalaureate Program. She graduated from GHS in 1992.

While at OBU, she was a member of the Lady Tiger basketball team.

Young is currently employed as an accountant at the Arkansas Enterprises Group in Arkadelphia and is pursuing a master's degree at Henderson State University.

TRIO is a series of programs funded under Title IV of the U.S. Department of Education's Higher Education Act of 1965, to help students overcome class, social, academic and cultural barriers in colleges and universities.

Currently, there are no more than 1,750 TRIO programs at more than 1,000 public and private colleges and universities assisting more than 700,000 students nationwide.