Worked with thousands of students on Verde Campus since 1997 when she became the first Verde Valley Campus TRIO advisor
Linda Evans, longtime Student Support Services TRIO Coordinator for the Yavapai Community College Verde Valley Campus, announced her retirement effective March 3. Evans is credited with helping thousands of students to successfully matriculate Yavapai Community College since the beginning of the TRIO program on the Verde Campus in 1997.
In an interview with reporter J.J. McCormack, Evans said that her leaving was a bitter-sweet departure from the “addictive quality of higher education.” It has been like working in a butterfly aviary, she told McCormack: “You’re working with all these men and women who are becoming – they’re growing and changing. It’s a neat thing to be able to watch.”
She also said that “I fell in love with the [TRIO advising] position. It involved tutoring, mentoring and working with students in a little more personal way.” Because TRIO advisors have a lighter advising load, it enables them to “delve a little deeper” into each student’s preferences and needs. “Some people are told all their lives that they can’t do math. Our college shows them that they can. Not only that, but that they can do it well.”
The Federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) are Federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes programs targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to postbaccalaureate programs.
Most recently, August 2020, Yavapai Community College received a U.S. Department of Education TRIO grant in the amount of $2,417,615.00. The five-year award allowed the College to continue with the TRIO Student Support Services Program, which supports more than 300 students annually.
To read Yavapai Community College reporter J.J. McCormack’s great story about Ms. Evans, please go to https://www.yc.edu/v6/news/2021/02/linda-evans.html . Or, click here.