University of Vermont College of Medicine Class of 2010 alumna Jessie Janowski, M.D., recently received the 2012 Vermont Educational Opportunity Programs VEOP Achiever Award at a ceremony held October 9, 2012 at Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vt. This award recognizes one outstanding former student of a U.S. Department of Education-funded TRIO program.

Janowski, a native of Glover, Vt., was an Upward Bound student at Lyndon State College for three years before going on to Tufts University, where she graduated with a degree in quantitative economics with a pre-medical minor. She received her M.D. from the UVM College of Medicine in 2010 and is now a third-year resident in orthopedic surgery at Fletcher Allen Health Care.

According to the U.S. Department of Education website, the Federal TRIO Programs (TRIO) are Federal outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds. TRIO includes eight programs, including Upward Bound, that are targeted to serve and assist low-income individuals, first-generation college students, and individuals with disabilities to progress through the academic pipeline from middle school to post baccalaureate programs. TRIO also includes a training program for directors and staff of TRIO projects.

In addition to Janowski, the Upward Bound program at Lyndon State College has had two other Northeast Kingdom alumni graduate from the UVM College of Medicine – Patricia Waterhouse Rissacher, M.D.’05, a native of Craftsbury who now works in a family medicine practice affiliated with Canton-Potsdam Hospital in New York, and Casey Johnson, M.D.’11, a native of Groton who is currently a second-year family medicine resident at Susquehanna Health/Williamsport Regional Medical Center in Pennsylvania.

(This article was adapted from a news release produced by Rick Williams, director, Lyndon State College Upward Bound.)