Posted 7:06 p.m. Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Thanks to a $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, 95 students a year for the next five years, will receive support from the Upward Bound Program at UW-La Crosse. The program received a grant for $420,258, which will fund the program for 2012-13. Funding for the next five years is anticipated to reach $2.1 million.
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Thanks to a $2.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education, 95 students a year for the next five years, will receive support from the Upward Bound Program at UW-La Crosse. The program received a grant for $420,258, which will fund the program for 2012-13. Funding for the next five years is anticipated to reach $2.1 million.
Upward Bound helps prepare high school students for the path toward a bachelor’s degree. It is one of the federal TRIO programs, outreach and student services programs designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
UW-L's program is one of 964 program sites across the U.S. serving students whose parents did not obtain a four-year college degree and/or are from low-income families.
"Upward Bound opens up opportunities for many high school students to go to college who might not have believed it was possible," says UW-L's Upward Bound Director Kathryn Oganowski who wrote the grant. "It also helps parents who didn't go to college feel less overwhelmed about knowing how to help their children attend."
The program provides academic support and is designed to motivate participants to graduate from high school and to attend college. Each Upward Bound Program is tailored to meet the needs of people in its area. UW-L's program is divided into two parts each year. The first provides academic support services through weekly advising and tutoring and through monthly Saturday meetings throughout the school year. The second part is a six-week residential high school program on campus during the summer. The intense program focuses on academic, cultural and personal development and career planning. Teachers from area schools teach the courses. UW-L students and staff tutor and supervise the students and live with them in the residence halls.
Student tutors and staff will oversee 47 high school students living on campus this summer from June 13 through July 26.
Upward Bound employs 20 to 35 UW-L students each year to help with the program, Oganowski says.
Find out more about the Upward Bound Program at UW-L at www.uwlax.edu/upbound/.
For information and photos from the 2011 residence program see also "Upward Bound: Campus program gets high school students on the path to college" at http://news.uwlax.edu/upward-bound-campus-program-gets-high-school-students-on-the-path-to-college/.