UC Davis has received three Educat-ional Talent Search grants totalling $3 million to help California junior high and high school students go to college during the next four years.

The U.S. Department of Education awarded the grants. Two of them are continuing grants and the third, covering Siskiyou County, is new this year.

The money will allow ETS to assist seventh-12th grade students from disadvantaged backgrounds in completing high school and continuing with post-secondary education. The UC Davis program provides counseling, admissions information, college campus tours, scholarship information and a host of other services to more than 2,200 students in Northern California.

The program has received federal funding for its work in Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties since it began at UC Davis in 1994, and its Redding grant began in 2002. UC Davis received private funding for Siskiyou county in the past, but the Department of Education grant will ensure that money will keep coming for years to come.

Siskiyou County has the second-lowest average income of California's 58 counties, making it a prime target for Educational Talent Search services. The county is also far away from any four-year colleges, an added difficulty for local students.

"Students there are very well prepared academically but are going on to post-secondary education at very low rates," said north state program director Lianne Boren. "Having to go far away from home is a huge obstacle."

The campus program is one of more than 475 nationwide that serve close to 400,000 students.