NORTH MANKATO — South Central College has received another million-dollar-plus grant, this time to increase student retention as well as transfer and graduation rates.

The latest is a five-year federal TRIO Student Support Services grant that will give the college at least $219,984 per year. It will allow SCC to provide tutoring as well as overall academic and personal support services to first-generation and low-income students, and students with disabilities.

“This is huge good news for our college,” SCC President Keith Stover said in a college-issued statement this week. “It is far more important to our college than the amount of the grant may convey to our public. SCC has made attempts at attaining these funds in the past, but it wasn’t until our change in mission five years ago — making SCC a comprehensive community and technical college — that we became real contenders for a TRIO grant.”

This was the college’s second time applying for a TRIO grant. It failed the first time. But this time around, said Linda Beer, SCC’s dean of students, their grant application was viewed much more favorably.

Of the three judges that scored SCC’s application, one gave them a 98 out of 100, one gave them a 99 and the last gave them a perfect score.

“We are at the perfect point in our college’s misson to demonstrate that our students are high need,” Beer said. “Fifty-nine percent of our students meet the eligibility requirements of either being low-income, first-generation or a student with a disability.”

SCC hopes to partner in its TRIO efforts with big brother across the river.

Minnesota State University has received TRIO grant funding for years, and is poised to assist SCC in implementation of the TRIO program.

Beer said they’re hoping students in the SCC TRIO program can easily transition to the MSU program if they choose to transfer to MSU.

This is the second announcement in the past few weeks. Previously, the college won a prestigious National Science Foundation grant for $200,000 to beef up its civil engineering program with a component in geographic information systems.

And last January the college announced it had received a $1.9 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor for its up and coming mechatronics program.

The college hopes it can serve up to 140 students with the TRIO grant, and Beer said she expects they’ll fill those slots by early November.

TRIO works by having students work one-to-one with an advisor. Students create their own strategic plan for success, and TRIO advisors help them see it through.

“They may need some remediation in math, they might have test-taking anxiety, maybe we have a single parent who is wondering ‘How do I pay for day care?’” Beer said. “We address any potential barrier — instead of them going it alone, we work with students.”

Students can apply now. To get into the program, students must go through an intake interview. Visit southcentral.edu/trio for more information and to apply online.

And this semester, the college plans an intense marketing campaign to get students interested.