What is Upward Bound?
Upward Bound was established
by special amendments to the Higher Education Act of 1965. The
program operates year round and provides services through three
components. These services include, but are not limited to, a six
week summer residential program in which students live on campus and
attend classes, a bridge program for those students who have successfully
completed two summer sessions, and a nine month academic tutorial program
for students involved in Upward Bound. Some other basic services are
instructional advising, personal career development, cultural enrichment,
and individual assistance in applying to colleges.
The first established Upward
Bound program was born in 1967 at the University of Nevada-Reno campus.
The main goal of the program was to serve students from diverse
backgrounds who truly aspire to complete a college degree.
Today that goal remains
unchanged. Other goals such as teaching students to become risk
takers, problem posing problem solvers, self directed achievers are also
important to all students of MSU-Billings' Upward Bound. In addition
to those goals, others remain. These include assisting students to
become accountable and responsible as well as respectful. The UB
program also aids students in becoming producers and in accepting
diversity. Students are allowed the freedom to fail. This
means that if something fails the first time, one can either give up or
choose to try again until we succeed. The choice to fail is ours.
During the school year, Upward
Bound students enjoy Saturday Colleges and are offered daily tutoring and
counseling whenever needed. The Saturday colleges occur once a month
and offer students an opportunity to get involved in other cultural
backgrounds such as Art or volunteer community service.
In addition to the activities
during the school year, the summer program is designed to further learning
about a theme selected by the students. The theme for Summer 2003
was Space Exploration: Our Next Frontier.
Through all these activities
and education, there is never a dull moment at Upward Bound. We
start here as strangers, become friends, and leave as members of the
Upward Bound family.
By: Brittany Fosjord, Upward Bound participant
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