Iowa Lt. Gov. Sally Pederson encouraged students to “dream big and work hard and live in Iowa” at an awards ceremony in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

Pederson stopped in Ames Friday to present achievement awards to seven Iowa TRIO students during Iowa State’s Upward Bound Olympics.

TRIO is a group of eight federally funded programs which provides low-income and first-generation students with the opportunity to go to college.

“I am particularly pleased to speak to an audience of hardworking individuals,” Pederson said. “Hard work is the very simple key to success.”

She said Iowa needs more young people like the TRIO students to stay in the state.

“You are just the kind of bright young people that Iowa needs,” she said.

Pederson said she and Gov. Tom Vilsack are working to make Iowa the number one state in which to live, work and raise a family.

“Iowa has a lot to offer you and you have a lot to offer Iowa,” Pederson said at Friday’s speech.

The scholarships presented were sponsored by the Iowa MidAmerican Association of Educational Opportunities Program Personnel, an organization that raises money for scholarships for the students involved in TRIO programs.

In order to qualify for a scholarship, a student must have a grade point average of 2.5 or higher and have participated in a TRIO program for a significant portion of their education.

ACT scores are influential, as well as unusual life circumstances.

Jane Agyeman, program coordinator for educational talent search, said Iowa MAEOPP’s goal in presenting these scholarships is to “reward those who may not get anything else, merit-wise, but are still academically sound and can use every help they can get to go to college.”

In order to receive these scholarships, a member of Iowa MAEOPP sends a letter of nomination to the scholarship committee.

The student selected completes a scholarship application and writes a letter about his or her situation and how TRIO has helped him or her.

The MAEOPP scholarship committee reviewed a total of 39 applications and chose seven winners, granting them each a $500 one-time scholarship for use toward their college education.

Roger Hayenga, director of Upward Bound at Iowa Lakes Community College and the chair of this year’s scholarship committee, said giving out the scholarships is “the best part of my job.”

This year’s Iowa MAEOPP scholarship winners are Shalia Moore, Marta Tasler, Amy Lahart, Melissa Gehrt, Crystal Sokol, Steven Van Stralen and Jay Eason.

Even though the achievement awards are not directly connected to the Upward Bound Olympics, program organizers used the Olympics to get more exposure for the awards program, Hayenga said.