UWS Staff Photo
By Elias Alexandrou
ealexan7@uwsuper.edu
Sam Maday is the assistant Track and Field Coach and the Cultural and Education Coordinator in the Educational Success Center at the University of Wisconsin-Superior. As the Cultural and Education Coordinator, Maday works with TRIO Student Support Services (SSS). TRIO is a federally funded program by the Department of Education that aim to assist college students who meet federal family income guidelines, first generation college students, and/or have documented disabilities. Applications are available online or in their office in Swenson 1024.
Maday began coaching track and field in 2010, and began working for TRIO SSS in 2017. Although he has a passion for coaching, Maday’s main focus recently has been with TRIO SSS.
“They offer academic and life skills building workshops, free cultural events and field trips, probation and suspension prevention, additional financial aid, and peer and professional coaching,” said Maday. He and TRIO SSS hope to help UWS students maintain good academic standing and eventually graduate from UWS.
Currently, Maday is writing a new grant proposal for TRIO SSS to the Department of Education. Normally, the grant reward is only given out every five years to help pay for scholarships and activities hosted by Trio SSS in that five-year period. Maday explained two thirds of UWS students are eligible for TRIO SSS aid, but with the current grant, helping each eligible student isn’t conceivable, because there are only 160 spots available.
Maday said, “I would like to see the [grant] increase with the number of students [eligible], since there are a lot more students that we could be helping.”
Outside of coaching and TRIO SSS, Maday organizes an organization called Hygiene. Hygiene collects travel bottles of hygiene products from hotel chains to help those that are homeless or those that need it. Maday hopes to incorporate Hygiene on UWS one day to also help students.
