ACADEMIC AFFAIRS | In February, Jacqueline Amparo joined LMU as the inaugural Director of the Ignacio Student Support Services Program, a federal TRIO Program funded by the U.S. Department of Education. The Ignacio Student Support Services Program joins the existing TRIO grants at LMU: Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science, and McNairs Scholars and will also work closely with First To Go, who for the past eleven years has been spearheading the support for first-generation students at LMU.
The Program serves 140 students from low-income, first-generation, and disability backgrounds and seeks to enhance participants’ engagement and success at LMU through academic support, financial education, and holistic advising services.
“We are fortunate to have been awarded the Department of Education TRiO grant to inaugurate the Ignacio SSS Program at LMU,” said José I. Badenes, S.J., associate provost for undergraduate education and professor of Spanish. “The services it provides are consonant with our university’s Ignatian Mission to support students, particularly first generation and/or low income, on their journey towards graduation and beyond. I am confident that the program will thrive under the guidance of founding director Jacqueline Amparo. Her background and experience posit her to guarantee the program’s success in accomplishing its goals.”
The Program is currently recruiting students and seeking to enroll 105 participants by the end of August. Once in the program, each participant will receive a comprehensive set of services including: one-to-one dedicated peer tutoring; proactive academic advising and monitoring; federal student financial aid advising; assistance in completing the FAFSA and finding private and public scholarships; financial literacy education and financial planning for postsecondary education; graduate and professional school selection and enrollment assistance; a robust program of career engagement and preparation; personal counseling and referrals to campus resources as needed; as well as annual cultural events. Faculty or staff can refer students that may qualify for the program directly to Jacqueline. A website with an online application is forthcoming.
Jacqueline brings nearly 15 years of experience in college access and success for underserved and underrepresented communities. She comes to LMU from College Track, a national organization providing holistic college access support to first-generation students from low-income communities. As College Completion Director of the Watts site, Jacqueline established the department that helped students apply, transition, and graduate from college. She also worked at the University of Pennsylvania, where she advocated for initiatives to strengthen student support, such as holistic advising, lending library, food pantry, summer storage. These initiatives were scaled and provided the framework for The First-Generation, Low-Income (FGLI) Program at Penn.
As a TRIO alumna herself, Jacqueline has a personal understanding of the importance of institutional programs like the Ignacio SSS Program for low-income, first-generation students. She was the first one in her family to graduate from college, and entered the education field to help others do the same. She earned her M.S.Ed in higher education from the University of Pennsylvania, and her B.A. in psychology from UC Berkeley.
