07-08-2025
Stockton's University of the Pacific receives federal grant for first-generation students
Amid defunding of the Department of Education, nearly $2 million of funding was renewed for the University of the Pacific in Stockton – specifically for students who are the first in their family to attend college.
Success TRiO, UOP's federally funded student educational opportunity program, says this money will change lives in Stockton.
"I'll be the first in the family to finish my bachelor's degree," said Sounie Proeung-Sok, a senior at Pacific.
Proeung-Sok, a native Stocktonian, will not only be the first in his family to graduate and get a degree, but also the first to be a university student.
"I'm very proud to be first-generation. I'm first-generation Cambodian-American," Proeung-Sok said. "I come from a family of eight. I'm the first in my family to attend college."
Recently, the Department of Education awarded TRiO $1.7 million – money that will be going to 1,000 first-generation students who attend UOP over the next five years. Students just like Sounie.
"They're coming from low-income backgrounds, such as myself," Proeung-Sok said. "For us to be awarded that $1.7 million grant, that's going to support so many more students who think they don't have that ... financial support to even attend college."
It's support the TRiO program was preparing to lose.
"It's been really tough, but we had a contingency plan for a couple months now just in case the TRiO grant didn't get refunded for the next five years," said Rosie Montes with TRiO.
Montes is the director for the Success TRiO program at Pacific. A first-generation graduate herself, she knows that this money going towards these students is the boost they need.
"They're providing for the household, they're paying for groceries. How do first-gen students continue their education while also providing for their family at home?" Montes said.
The grant will help 200 students every year for five years, then it could hopefully be renewed again.
"I thought I wasn't going to be able to afford college. With the support I received from UOP and the Success TRiO program, it's a possibility for anyone, to be honest," Proeung-Sok said.
Sounie says this program has helped him so much, he switched his major to sociology and now plans to help more first-generation students make it through college, just like TRiO helped him.
