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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Upward Bound Enjoyed Another Great Summer Program!


 

When the city of Rochester has been overrun by flesh-consuming zombies, who do you call?


The students of MCC Upward Bound!

We spent the first week of the summer program bonding the students together through conquering their fears at Bristol Mountain's high ropes course, leading each other through an obstacle course blind-folded, and casting vision for the group to be fully engaged in responding to the zombie crisis. Then, the students were ready to take on the challenge. They tackled the major problems that resulted from the zombie invasion, including food shortages, self-defense implementation, and water purification in different ways: designing small vegetable gardens, observing the differences between human blood and zombie blood through a microscope, and discovering the most effective ways to kill a zombie. Andrea Dawson, a junior from Early College, exclaimed "This summer program was awesome! It really brought us together like a family, and I loved all the hands-on things we did." As a staff, we hoped for an active, productive, and fun summer, and we saw it come to life with our students.

Amidst the zombie crisis, we held a follow-up event of Cultural Sharing Day where we reconnected with the Browncroft Community Church high-school youth group at the Cultural Sharing Carnival. Led by a group of Upward Bound students and a few Browncroft students, we bonded over carnival games with a twist, such as dunk tank we used to "dunk racism" (aka a student wearing a t-shirt with hateful words inscribed all over it).


After the carnival games, we spent time learning a dance together (DJ Silento's "Watch Me"), which included a low amount of dance skill and a high amount of laughter. We also crafted vision boards, which are collage displays in response to a certain theme. The theme "What do you want the city of Rochester to look like?" sparked remarkable creativity and opened up conversation around shared values between students. The students left the day asking "When can we do this again!?", and the staff loved seeing two groups from different neighborhoods engage.

Jena K. Smith
Upward Bound
10/22/2015