Sarah Silvafierro Nolan, an alumna of the Upward Bound program at New Mexico State University and the Upward Bound Math/Science program at Trinidad State Junior College, is one of the winners of the prestigious national 2015 National TRIO Achievers Award honoring individuals of distinction who, as students, made the most of their TRIO participation.
Silvafierro is Executive Director for NM Communities in Action and Faith. She says that without her participation in Upward Bound, she would not be leading the life she is blessed to have today. “The series of events that led me from Gadsden High School to New Mexico State University to Trinidad State Junior College, then to San Francisco, and finally to my current vocation isn’t luck; luck is the residue of design,” she says. “Upward Bound and Upward Bound Math/Science were designed to pluck young women like me out of poverty and set me on a path of success and purpose.”
Silvafierro grew up in Vado, NM and graduated from the University of San Francisco with a Bachelor of Arts in Theology and Latin American History. She has received the National LULAC Women’s Conference Outstanding Woman Award and is a Demos Movement Maker Fellow for Inclusive Democracy.
“The work of Sarah Silvafierro Nolan has improved the quality of life for so many underserved people and she serves as a role model and mentor for countless individuals,” said Vince Engling, Upward Bound program coordinator and Susan C. Brown, former director of the Center for Learning Assistance at New Mexico State University. “The communities in Southern New Mexico are better places and the residents have better lives because of her.”
Silvafierro will join the other awardees at a ceremony honoring their achievements at the 34th Annual Council for Opportunity in Education Conference in Atlanta, GA on September 16-19.
Upward Bound, one of the federally-funded TRIO programs, provides college preparation, mentoring, and college admissions assistance to thousands of low-income and first-generation students and students with disabilities across the country.