Student Support Services, a federally-funded program designed to assist low-income and first-generation students and students with disabilities, recently was awarded its third grant at Southeast Missouri State University.

The four-year grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Education begins Sept. 1 and will run through August 2001.

The grant award for the first year of the four-year period is $203,375, university officials said. The Student Support Services program aims to help students enter graduate and professional programs and make the most of their college careers.

The program was first funded in 1990 with a three-year grant. In 1993, the program received its second grant, funding the program through August of this year.

The Student Support Services program is one of Southeast Missouri State's TRIO programs, federally funded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965. TRIO programs were established by Congress in 1965 to provide educational opportunities for low-income Americans.

Southeast's TRIO programs include the Student Support Services program, the Bootheel Talent Search program, and Project Upward Bound. Southeast administers the TRIO programs with federal grants.

The Bootheel Educational Talent Search assists disadvantaged young people, ages 12 to 27, who have academic potential for post-secondary education. Students are encouraged to continue and graduate from secondary schools and to enroll in programs of post-secondary education. The program encourages high school dropouts to return to school.

The Bootheel Educational Talent Search program originally was funded at Southeast in 1991. The U.S. Department of Education awarded the program its second grant in 1994, allowing the program to continue through 1998, school officials said.

Southeast currently is seeking another grant, which would fund the program through 2002.

Talent Search serves students in 10 high schools and 10 junior high schools, as well as out-of-school adults in Dunklin, Mississippi, New Madrid, Pemiscot, Scott and Stoddard counties. The program operates out of the Harry L. Crisp Bootheel Education Center in Malden.

Project Upward Bound is designed to identify and assist low-income 10th, 11th and 12th graders who show academic potential and interest in pursuing a post-secondary education.