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.

Spring 2025

The spring session of SSP begins Thursday, March 6 and meets weekly through May 1. Three Math Mondays are scheduled to begin early April.  Apply now!

Printable 2025 SSP Spring flyer (1 page PDF)

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.   

RGSS logoSSP 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...

Spring 2025

Each semester since 2011, I’ve had the privilege to welcome a new SSP class to campus. Every semester is unique and special. Here's a glimpse of this what happens at SSP. The first session is inspirational as students share the motivations, desires, and hopes that led them to SSP. The second session creates a somewhat different vibe. Together, we trace and unpack past experiences with school and learning, the good and the not-so-great. Then, pressing questions, worries, and fears are named and quickly fill the whiteboard:

• Will my children’s well-being suffer because I am attending college?
• How do I justify the time and the money to pursue a degree?
• I’ve tried college before – what makes me think I can succeed this time?
• How can I manage being a parent, a worker, a student?
• Am I too old? Am I smart enough? Will I be welcomed and respected?
• Is college even possible for someone like me?

As the semester progresses, some answers emerge, and some questions lose their urgency. Confidence builds as options and resources are identified. Next steps come into focus, as dreams become directions and even destinations.

These experiences and accomplishments are celebrated in our final session. Writing portfolios are returned. Reflections and creative work are presented. Food, small gifts, congratulations and heartfelt gratitude are shared by all. It’s a special joy to remind these newest SSP graduates that the Locally-Grown Scholarships are there to support their first semesters as college students, at UWL, Viterbo, Western or other institutions in the region.

The Wendell Berry poem captures the process and experience of change in our lives. Perhaps the wondering, and even the worrying, are signs we are ready to do our “real work.” If you don’t know what to do about college, SSP is ready to help!

A poem titled Our Real Work

Happy Back-to-School, Andrea

Back to school is for adults too!Andrea Hansen, SSP Director

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.