BATON ROUGE - While the TRIO program at Baton Rouge Community College helps high school and college students get into and through higher education, the TRIO program is facing cuts at the federal level which could trickle down to those prospective students.

This summer, high school students at BRCC are getting ahead.

"On the first day, a teacher just gives you a whole lot, the syllabus, how she runs her class. She starts all of the lessons. You don't want to be behind," High School Senior Myles Reed said.

TRIO has been around since the 1960s and is federally funded. It helps low-income and first-generation college students, and at the federal level, TRIO's funding is at risk. In the White House's proposed budget, the program could be eliminated. 

"We worked very hard to provide those wrap-around services that we know that low-income students and first-generation students need to not only gain access but to graduate from college," BRCC TRIO Director Dr. Darica Simon Baptiste said.

Sharahonda Burton is one of those students. While she first attended college 20 years ago, she eventually dropped out, but now she's back at BRCC ready to learn and graduate.

"I have six children, an older set and a younger set," Burton said. "Some of my family graduated, some of them didn't. Some of them dropped out. I want to be back to break the generational curse that we have in our family."