Jennifer Baker
N8166 Koepenick Road
Deerbrook, WI 54424
March 3, 2005
Representative Tom Petri
2390 State Road 44, Suite B
Oshkosh, WI 54904
Dear Representative Petri,
My name is Jennifer Baker, and I am currently a Junior at Ripon College in Wisconsin. Since
my freshman year in high school, the TRIO programs have been very important in my life and
are one of the main reasons I am where I am today. As a freshman in high school, I was
accepted in to the Upward Bound program because I had good grades and came from a low-
income family. This program helped me to discover who I really was. Before the program, I
was extremely shy and didn’t know what I wanted to do after high school. During the summer
programs, I was given the opportunity to travel to different parts of the United States that I
probably never would have been able to do on my own, and I was also given the chance to tour
college campuses all over Wisconsin. That is how I found out about Ripon College. I fell in
love with Ripon College the first time I visited, and knew it was there I wanted to go after high
school. The people in the Upward Bound program helped me with the application process and
filling out the FAFSA for the first time. Without them I would have completely lost.
When I started my education at Ripon College, I immediately got involved with the Student
Support Services’ program, which I was told was an extension of the Upward Bound program for
college students. I have been a part of this program for 3 years now, and it has provided me with
more help than I ever expected I would need. Because of my parents’ low-income status and the
fact that I am a first-generation college student, SSS accepted me right away and encouraged me
to attend cultural events, to get involved in tutoring, and to start looking at my career options.
College was a very scary thing for me because I was the first in my family to go, but the people
at SSS and the program itself made me feel like I belonged and helped me adjust to my new
home away from home.
I have been encouraged many times to consider the summer internship programs that I would be
able to do through the TRIO and McNair programs. Without these programs at my disposal, I
would have no idea how to even go about interning for jobs or even know that I had the
opportunities to intern almost anywhere in the country.
To me, these programs were the difference between attending college, or ending school early and
being unhappy for the rest of my life wondering if I could have done something different.
Without these programs, other students like me who com from low-income families and have no
idea what their options are would never be able to grow in to their full potential. To eliminate
these programs would be to eliminate all of the possibilities of furthering many deserving
students’ education and growth as respectable adults who in turn provide so much for society at
large.
Yours truly,
Jennifer Baker
Ripon College
600 Campus Dr., Unit #035
Ripon, WI 54971