In the 1960s, Upward Bound was created as party of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty in an attempt to give low-income, first generation students a better chance at graduating from college and escaping poverty.
Now in its 50th year at the University of Massachusetts, the program that provides learning resources to students is celebrating the impact it has had on the lives of students.
Upward Bound was initially intended as an experimental program, and was one of the first of many federally established college-access programs.
At its beginning, Upward Bound had a modest 17 locations and enrolled 2,061 students; today, the program has grown to include programs in all 50 states, and currently enrolls more than two million students nationwide, according to the Council for Opportunity in Education.
Upward Bound scholars are able to complete their additional work and study for the program after school, on Saturdays and during the summer. Participants in the program are expected to emerge with stronger reading and writing abilities, an expanded vocabulary, improved analytical, reflective and critical thinking skills, an expanded world view, and a further developed love of learning both in and out of the classroom, among other things, according to its website.
“Ever since the program began here, I think our presence has been felt,” said Tyson Rose, director of the Upward Bound program at the University of Massachusetts and an alumnus of the program himself. “We’ve graduated 30-something seniors who are all involved in schools, and (who are) able to think about their futures in a different way than what might have been possible to them previously.”
The program works by partnering colleges and universities with under-resourced high schools from low-income areas. Upward Bound prepares high school students for the rigors of higher education by exposing them to advanced study in a variety of subjects, such as literature, composition, mathematics and science.
In the Pioneer Valley, Upward Bound is partnered with the University of Massachusetts and Springfield’s High School of Commerce, and is working to bring access to college education to the western Massachusetts community.
At UMass, the program was reformed and reinstated within the last few years; in 2012, the University obtained a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to restart the Upward Bound program in the area after years of not having the resources.
The website for the program explains how Upward Bound stresses the development of academic skills and motivation for students who might not traditionally be considered college-bound.
Upward Bound hosted an alumni reunion on the weekend of Oct. 10 in honor of the 50th anniversary of the program. The reunion gave current Upward Bound students the chance to meet and talk with alumni of the program, and for the alumni themselves to share stories with each other.
“I think that was one of the best things about the anniversary and the reunion, is … it really allowed us to connect with a history that … we just weren’t able to directly connect (to) it because there has been a break in between the Upward Bound program that was here previously and this new program,” Rose said.
“One of the best things was tapping into a long standing history that used to be here in the Pioneer Valley and actually a very comprehensive (history) that wasn’t just the Pioneer Valley but all throughout western (Massachusetts),” Rose said. “So to sort of look at the cross ranging impact throughout western Mass. is quite extensive, and (so is) the impact on people’s lives that we heard a lot about during the alumni weekend.”
Devinne Zadravec can be reached at [email protected].
