In 2015, the United States marked the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Higher Education Act. The goal of the legislation was twofold: to strengthen the educational resources of our colleges and universities and to provide financial assistance for students in postsecondary and higher education (Pub. L. No. 89-329). Title IV of the Higher Education Act dealt with providing students with financial assistance and created the federally funded Student Support Services program, whose goal is to assist first-generation college students from low-income families to be successful once they have gained access to college. Previous research on Student Support Services programs has largely concentrated on the academic components of the programs and how students have benefitted from achieving higher grade point averages. This study examined the impact various components of the program, both academic and nonacademic, had on students' self-efficacy and persistence because research has shown that firstgeneration students usually have lower self-efficacy The focus of this study is a program at Eastern Connecticut State University, the Summer Transition at Eastern/Contract Admissions Program, which provides first-generation and low-income students who do not meet regular admission standards the opportunity to attend college. The phenomena of how participation in a Student Support Services program influenced Eastern Connecticut State University students' self-efficacy and persistence was viewed through the lens of Albert Bandura's social cognitive theory, in particular through the construct of self-efficacy.