Vermont State University Alumni Advocate For TRIO At The National Policy Seminar

published by the Caledonian Record 03/30/2026

Three Vermont State University TRIO alumni attended the 45th annual National Policy Seminar in Washington, D.C. on March 9-12th — Alaura Rich, Isabel Wildflower and Nik Buonocore. The Council for Opportunity in Education (COE) hosts this event to bring advocates for low-income, first-generation students served by the federal TRIO programs to Capitol Hill. This year’s event had more than 700 TRIO professionals, alums, and advocates in the nation’s capital to continue to strengthen TRIO programs and open doors for first-generation and low-income students. VTSU hosts eight TRIO programs on their campuses throughout the state, providing services to scholars pursuing their academic and career goals.

The TRIO programs, established by Congress, support modest-income and first-generation college-bound Americans in achieving success in postsecondary education. These programs are funded under Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965, and work to ensure equal educational opportunities for all Americans, regardless of economic circumstance or being the first in their families to attend college.

Vermont TRIO staff and alumni met with education aides from the offices of Sen. Peter Welch, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Becca Balint. Alumni shared testimonies about how Vermont’s TRIO programs impacted their college journeys and completion rates. Jahnessa Ryea, legislative aide for Welch, and Erika Custodia, legislative correspondent for Balint, both benefited from Vermont’s TRIO Talent Search program. They know firsthand the obstacles and opportunities associated with being first generation college and from moderate income families.

Alaura was a member of the VTSU TRIO Upward Bound at Lyndon and a member of the University of Vermont’s Student Support Services program. She received her bachelor of science in Community and International Development from UVM in 2022 and completed her master’s of Public Administration from the UVM in 2024. She completed graduate courses at NYU’s Wagner School of Public Service. Alaura currently serves as a program coordinator at NYU School of Law’s Public Interest Law Center, where she helps to prepare hundreds of students each year for public service legal careers. Her work centers on advancing access to opportunity and supporting the next generation of public interest leaders. She was awarded the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Lawrence K. Forcier Outstanding Senior Award in recognition of her academic achievements and community involvement, and was also selected by UVM as the Keynote Alumni Speaker at UVM’s First-Generation Student Celebration Day. “Today, I am living proof of what access, guidance, and belief can do for a young person who has no existing support and every reason to give up, said Alaura. “TRIO programs were the foundation on which I built my education, my career, and my purpose. Every degree, every internship, and every milestone I’ve ever achieved can be traced back to the moment a caring adult looked at a 15-year-old girl from rural Vermont and said, ‘You deserve more.’”

Isabel was also an alum of the VTSU Upward Bound program at Lyndon and a Lake Region Union High School student. She received a bachelor of science in Criminal Justice from SUNY Potsdam in 2020 and a master’s of science in Organizational Communications from Northeastern University in 2022. Currently, Isabel is family office advisor at Hemenway and Barnes – a Boston law office where she promotes financial literacy among “the rising generation of clients” She helps to coordinate the stewardship of assets and organizes business, personal and in many cases, philanthropic interests for high-net-worth families. Academically, she graduated summa cum laude from NU and has been a member of National College Honor Society and the National Criminal Justice Honor Society. She received the Criminal Justice Scholar of the Year Award from SUNY Potsdam upon graduation. “… today, as a 26-year-old, the owner of a successful small business, with a graduate degree, working as a Family Office Advisor within a prestigious law firm in Boston, making a six-figure salary, and being in the process of buying my first home in Boston’s Back Bay neighborhood, I think back on where I would be without Upward Bound,” said Isabel. I may never have known college was possible, I may never have toured Thomas College and decided to go, I may have never transferred and had the opportunity to study abroad and meet my wife, and I may never have believed in myself enough to apply to graduate school. Needless to say, Upward Bound changed my life in more ways than I can explain …”

Nik is a member of the VTSU-Castleton Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program and a junior of the Biology program. The mission of the VTSU McNair Scholars program is to motivate, enable and equip talented VTSU undergraduate students for entrance into Ph.D. programs and for the next phase in their academic careers. The program enrolls moderate-income and first-generation students, as well as students from groups that are under-represented in doctoral study, and helps them prepare for graduate school. McNair Scholars learn graduate-level research methods and receive advising support for applying to graduate school and related aspects of higher education. Scholars also complete a summer research project under the guidance of a faculty mentor and have the opportunity to visit schools and attend and/or present at scholarly research conferences.

Nik encountered and overcome several major obstacles as a young adult, and then was offered the opportunity to get a bachelor’s degree in Vermont. She was recruited to become a TRIO McNair Scholar and after several attempts, TRIO McNair Director Debbie Warnock convince her that she could in fact, get into, and flourish in, graduate school. “More than camaraderie, joining McNair was like joining a family that accepts you because they understand you,” said Nik. “So many of us come from situations that made our world feel impossibly small; a place where nothing can be right when everything is wrong. To grow alongside each other is to lend out our strengths and lean on a shared resilience. I believe that the most vital perspective is found in those who have lived through struggles, and emerged with the knowledge of how to navigate systems built without them in mind.”

Vermont has 12 different Educational Opportunity Programs. Collectively, these federally funded TRIO programs serve almost 7,000 Vermonters and bring more than $9 million annually to the state. These include: four Student Support Service programs that serve more than 900 college students; five Upward Bound programs serving 360 high school students statewide; a statewide Talent Search program, assisting almost 1,000 middle and high school students; the Vermont GEAR UP program, working with more than 2,800 low-income middle and high school students across the state; and the Ronald E. McNair Scholars program, helping undergraduate students pursue graduate education.