Achieving College Excellence
Achieving College Excellence...what a wonderful, fancy. and scholarly title for a blog post, right? Hopefully I got your attention! For this week, I am directing my focus to all of you first-generation, low-income, and/or minority prospective LUC students.
Achieving College Excellence, or ACE, is an amazing nationally recognized and funded TRIO program that puts emphasis and attention to students who need additional help to catch up with other students who may be more fortunate and/or more able to get by with their lives.
TRIO- the root TRI pertaining to the number 3- is what makes up this specific student body: (1) first-generation (2) low-income (3) minority. If you fit into any or all of these requirements, then you may qualify to become an ACE scholar. I, myself, am an ACE scholar, fitting in all 3 categories, and because of this group, I am proud to be all 3 of those things
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Why am I proud? Even though all 3 of these categories are, in a way, limiting my opportunities that I can do in my life, they give me something that others more fortunate don’t have.
EXPERIENCE. HUMILITY. SELF-DISCIPLINE.
Experience is one of the biggest things that make ACE scholars unique. We come from all different backgrounds- ethnicity, personal hardships, and so much more. Our lives are different, yet unique, compared to others who may be more fortunate; we have experiences that have molded us to be the people that we are, whether it is being first-generation and having parents who do not know English or being low-income and living a more simplistic, raw lifestyle. Experience separates us from those who are aware of this struggles and hardships from those who physically live it everyday.
Thus, people who have experienced these type of things surely have some humility in them. As ACE scholars, we can connect with one another better because we live similar lives. We do not complain nor boast about what kind of lifestyles we live; rather, we are here as a community to support one another and make sure we are on the right path to success as LUC students.
Self-discipline is one of the most challenging things, in my opinion, that is an outcome of being in ACE. The main goals of being in ACE, is to help students succeed in their academics and ultimately obtain a bachelor’s degree diploma. ACE provides several services and it is up the the student to take advantage of it for example, advising, tutoring, and fulfilling other ACE membership requirements. It may sometimes be hard to make sure everything is on track, especially when there is a lot to balance.
This fall semester is my first official year being in ACE and after 7 months of familiarity, I can only say great things about this group. I wish I knew about it and joined it my freshman year, so here I am writing to all of you who qualify for this group, to take advantage!
For more information, please visit the LUC ACE site:
http://www.luc.edu/ace/
