More about Upward Bound Program:
Rooted squarely in the civil rights movement and tradition of the 1950s and ‘60s, Upward Bound was the first program of what became known as TRIO initiative, created with the Higher Education Act of 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society domestic agenda. The program at CofC is the oldest continuously operating Upward Bound in the state of South Carolina. The program is grant-funded, renewable through national competition every five years, the most recent grant cycle having begun on June 1, 2017.
“That’s all very interesting, but what do they actually DO?” Great question! There are two primary components of operations. The first is the Summer Component, during which rising 10th, 11th and 12th grade students spend most of the month of June in on-campus housing from Sunday evening through Thursday evening. Mornings consist of math, literature and writing, science and foreign language classes. Afternoons see students participating in a number of different enrichment classes, which vary from year to year and range from art/drawing, drama/theater, dance, music production, coding, basics of entrepreneurship, public health and more. In addition, there are career related and cultural outings that have included trips to Ft. Sumter, the dental school at MUSC, an organic farm, and local museums and historic parks. The summer program concludes with supervised community service and a five-day out of state college tour to such locales as Washington, DC, Memphis and Nashville, TN, Miami and Orlando, FL, New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA, Philadelphia, PA, and New York, NY.
The second, equally-as-important segment is the Academic Year Component, during which students participate twice per month in on-campus academic reinforcement in core academic subjects with classroom teachers as well as paid and volunteer college students, who also develop one on one mentoring relationships with Upward Bound students. The program also offers more “local” fall and spring college tours, typically one to two days, which explore institutions located both in-state and in neighboring states (GA, NC). The full-time program staff consists of Talim Lessane, Director; Ashley Robinson, Academic Coordinator; Ameerah Vickers, Academic Counselor (a College of Charleston alum) who goes to target schools in between the weeks of on-campus sessions to follow up and do more in-depth work with students; and Mr. Carlin Nelson, Office Manager (and also an alum of both UB and CofC). Although each role is different, the qualities that bind the staff together are passion for student success and dedication to excellence. The College of Charleston has six Upward Bound alumni as current students, including three from the class of 2018. For more information go to http://upwardbound.cofc.edu .