Lake Land College’s (LLC) TRiO program has officially welcomed a new Assistant Director, Faisal Tariq. He brings years of experience in leadership and student support, as well as a deep passion for helping college students achieve their personal and academic goals. Tariq’s return to TRiO is not just a homecoming, but a new beginning for the program.  

After serving as the manager of the Coach store in Tuscola, Tariq started at Lake Land College in 2022 as a TRiO Destination College advisor. After about nine months, Tariq finished his Master’s degree and decided to become an advisor in the TRiO Student Support Services, because he liked the aspect of working with college students and helping them succeed.  

Tariq’s job is to help with both TRiO programs—Student Support Services (SSS) and TRiO Destination College (DC).  In DC, he helps coordinate all nine different school districts, trips for middle schoolers, high schoolers and recruitment. He also has to help start up the brand-new TRiO program, TRiO STEM. “We serve 160 students a year in the SSS program. and then TRiO Destination College, we serve 595 students… And then the new STEM grant that we got, that’s going to have another 120 students,” Tariq said. 

If you are a college student that is not involved with TRiO and might be interested in their services, Tariq had the following to say: “I would encourage any student to reach out and see if it would be beneficial. Now, obviously, we do have some eligibility requirements to be in the program, but we always encourage students to, if they are interested, fill out an eligibility form, and then we can find out if they would fit into the program based on that”. TRiO has many services to offer such as academic advice, life advice, transfer advice, help navigating everything about college, grade check-ins and many more to help you succeed.  

If you have any questions, you can email Faisal Tariq at [email protected].