Despite a packed schedule that includes a job at a local hospital, her own roster of Rogue Community College courses and the demands of being a mom to eight children, Jessica Rutter makes time to tutor students who are first in their families to go to college.

Whether she’s helping students develop the right study habits or giving them tools so they understand and retain core biology and math concepts, Rutter is a dedicated tutor in RCC’s TRIO programs for first-generation students. At an event Wednesday celebrating students at RCC’s Higher Education Center in downtown Medford, Rutter went so far as to sport a T-shirt saying “Keep Calm and TRIO Works.”

Rutter said that helping first-generation student is a priority for her because she’s a first-generation student herself. She’s worked in health care for more than a decade and a half — ever since she became a Certified Nursing Assistant as an emancipated minor — but now she’s two years toward her goal of eventually transferring to Southern Oregon University for a degree in health care administration.

“As long as you have that willingness, you can find that support — at least at RCC,” Rutter said.

Although Rutter lacked the parental support that more traditional students typically have, she found her support network through RCC’s TRIO programs, a group of federally funded programs that according to numbers provided by the community college serves approximately 2,350 students every year across RCC’s campuses in Grants Pass, Medford and White City.

Some 24% of the community college’s students in the 2020-21 school year were first-generation students, according to RCC’s Institutional Research department.

According to TRIO Student Support Services program specialist Karen Shaw, who works at the Medford campus, first-generation students often have unique challenges navigating higher education. For example, Shaw said that selecting a major can weigh heavier on a first-generation college student because they are often afraid to make the wrong move. 

“That’s a big decision,” Shaw said. “They get discouraged very easily.”

Without family members’ college experiences to help guide them, first-gen students may find navigating the different facets of higher education entirely foreign to them. Shaw said she wants to support students who feel out of place. 

“Sometimes we’ll get students apologizing,” Shaw said. “We don’t want that to be the case — this is our job, and we love it.”

Mikaela Kirdik, who works in the Educational Opportunity Center branch of the TRIO programs, helps first-gen students with “all things scholarships” — whether it’s help with financial aid forms or help with a transfer university’s admissions essay.

Kirdik said she often hears students tell her, “I don’t even know where to start.”

“It’s like we’re their welcoming auntie,” Kirdik said. “We’re on the same boat with them.”

The efforts are tangible for students such as Rutter. She said that one of her advisors in the TRIO Student Support Services division was a “godsend” for maximizing the number of credits that will transfer over to SOU as she works toward her Associate of Science Oregon Transfer in Business.

Rutter’s path toward higher education began by attending a walk-in registration day at RCC’s Redwood Campus in Grants Pass in the summer of 2021. There she found help filling out her Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA, form. She started classes the following fall. There have been stumbles, but Rutter said she’s found support every step of the way.

“It’s probably one of my best decisions,” she said.

For more information on RCC’s TRIO programs, see roguecc.edu/studentsuccess/trio.asp.