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MCC Daily Tribune Archive

Upward Bound Promotes Community Involvement


Five seniors in the Upward Bound program are volunteering this summer at the Corpus Christ Church Vacation Bible School for four weeks. Other students are volunteering with NEAD (North East Area Development), helping with a community fair and documenting the conditions of homes in the northeast area of the city.

Upward Bound is a pre-college academic program for high school students in the Rochester City School District. The federally-funded program, sponsored by the Center for Educational Access and Achievement, provides the academic counseling and services that are necessary for students to graduate from high school with an increased potential to attend and ultimately graduate from college. Students are eligible if their parents do not have a four-year college degree, the family falls within low-income guidelines, they have at least a 2.5 GPA, and are either in eighth grade, in ninth grade or entering high school in the fall. The program is free for students.

Since Upward Bound’s inception in Fall 2000, retention rates have increased. In the first year, 2000-01, 100 percent of ninth and 12th graders stayed in the program. Last year, 2003-04, all of the ninth, 11th and 12th grade students stayed in the program and 90 percent of 10th graders remained. Plus, all of the 12th graders were accepted into college.

Dianne E McConkey
Public Affairs
07/12/2005