Hello membership, I wanted to share an update with you all! I just left a meeting with Martin Menezes and Katie Brown from Senator Collins' office with other leaders in education to advocate for more funding (meeting led by the wonderful Sarah Abernathy from CEF-Committee for Education Funding). Both Martin and Katie are familiar with TRIO and GEAR-UP programming and were excited to share Senator Collins' support in the 2023 appropriations letter. Furthermore, we got even more support from David Daigler, the President of the Maine Community College System and Martha Johnston, the Director of Education at FAME. Both of them had wonderful things to say in support of TRIO programs and chose to say that while also advocating for their own funding. It is validating to see some of our community partners recognizing and advocating for the good work and support that we bring to Maine students. TRIO works! Sam -- Samantha Prosser TRIO Upward Bound Coordinator Maine Educational Opportunity Association (MEEOA) President University of Southern Maine 37 College Ave Gorham, ME 04038 Phone: 207-780-5828 Fax: 207-228-8259 Website: https://usm.maine.edu/upward-bound-veterans-high-school-students https://www.meeoa.org/ Pronouns: she, her, hers This message and its contents are confidential. If you received this message in error, do not use or rely upon it. Instead, please inform the sender and then delete it. Thank you.