Self Sufficiency Program

Thinking about college? Wondering where to start or restart your education journey?

Take your first step with the Self-Sufficiency Program (SSP)!

SSP is a free, pre-college program that helps participants explore academic and career interests and practice college-level skills in a supportive setting. 

Offered each fall and spring semester, the 10-week evening class meets weekly on the UWL campus. Free childcare is available on-site.

Fall 2024

The fall session of SSP begins Thursday, September 26 and meets weekly through November 21. Three Math Mondays begin mid-October. Apply now!

Everyone is invited to the 2024 Locally Grown Scholarship Breakfast on Thursday, October 24, 7:30 a.m.–9 a.m. For details: www.uwlax.edu/self-sufficiency-program/locally-grown-scholarships

The Program

The purpose of SSP is to improve access to higher education for single-parents and other adults and help them prepare for college success.   

SSP has the following course goals:

• Familiarize students with college programs and options, applications and admissions procedures, and financial aid and scholarship opportunities at UWL, Viterbo University and Western Technical College. 
• Engage and support students in building skills in critical thinking, close-reading, reflective and academic writing, and math.
• Assist students in developing an individualized educational plan to reach their education and career goals.  

Upon completing SSP, students may be eligible for SSP's Locally Grown Scholarships to support their first semesters at UWL, Viterbo University, Western Technical College or other area colleges.   

SSP is a community engagement program of the Race, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.  

What's New at SSP?

From the Director's desk...

Fall 2024

Back to school is for adults too!Each fall, I staff a SSP table at Back-to-School events. I watch as children and their grown-ups visit the tables to gather school supplies and information on buses, vaccinations and vision tests, county, school, and community services and businesses. As new school backpacks fill, the weight of back-to-school tasks and expenses lighten for families. Smiles and generosity abound!

I often see former SSP students and their families at these community events. They stop at my table to tell me about their busy lives. I also find SSP grads staffing the tables and helping families “get ready for school.”

Finding SSP alumni doing community work is not a surprise. “I want to pay it forward and college will help me do this,” is a significant theme in the majority of applications to SSP. Regardless of intended majors, this ethic of “giving back” and “giving forward” is also prominent in the Locally Grown Scholarships essays written by SSP grads attending college.

Clearly, our communities need and benefit from the talents and commitment of these “locally grown scholars” and their families. Investing in parenting student success pays off. It unleashes a local talented workforce and a two-generation approach to addressing poverty. Adult students understand this and work mightily to complete semesters and programs. On the average, they earn higher GPAs than non-parenting students in spite of their multiple and often competing roles. And yet, fewer than 20% of student parents, who account for 20% of all college students, finish associate and bachelor degrees within six years. https://money.com/college-students-with-kids-struggle-to-graduate

When the obstacles are so entrenched and discouraging, what makes it possible for single parents and others to begin and persist in higher education? We have research identifying the barriers and effective approaches, of course. Knowing what helps but not investing in solutions is frustrating, to say the least.

Here’s what aspiring and attending college student parents teach me: Their dream of paying it forward is closely held and rooted in a spirit of gratitude. When tended, this ethic informs their daily practice, decisions, and life path. This is how you take those first steps, the ones that follow, and the ones that help you get back to it when you fall or must step away to regroup and adjust. Specific outcomes aren’t guaranteed. It is bigger than any playbook.

Not surprisingly, the paying it forward ethic is clearly evident among SSP’s donors and friends. Their gifts have built the Locally Grown Scholarship Fund and this generosity continues to honor the dreams and lift the spirits of SSP graduates. The circle continues - giving back and giving forward. Please join the celebration at the next SSP Locally Grown Scholarship Breakfast!

Happy Back-to-School,

Andrea

Andrea Hansen, SSP Director

Many thanks!

The Self-Sufficiency Program administrators and the SSP Locally Grown Scholarship Fund committee are committed to a policy of providing equal opportunity to all qualified persons regardless of race, religion, creed, color, national origin, ancestry, age, sex, marital status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, political affiliation, physical disability, mental disability, veterans status, or membership in the national guard, state defense force or any other reserve component of the military forces of the United States or this state.