The Virginia Tech Upward Bound program is set to begin a summer session lasting approximately six weeks. Around 100 students from 19 Virginia high schools will be on campus to get a head start on their next school year, taking courses in math, science, social studies, English and foreign languages. Rising seniors also have the opportunity to take an SAT preparation course.
Upward Bound is a nationally funded program through the U.S. Department of Education. It seeks to provide opportunities to students who are low income and/or would-be first generation college students.
While recruiting and advertising by counselors is done in schools, students must take the initiative to apply to enter the program in the ninth or tenth grade and remain in the program through graduation.
During the school year, Upward Bound counselors are present in schools for tutoring and advising. In the summer, students have an opportunity to go away from home for a jumpstart on the next year, gaining new friends and experience in the process. The Virginia Tech Upward Bound program has been operating since 1967.
Talent Search, a related program run through the same office, offers a more flexible schedule and an opportunity for an even larger number of underprivileged students to get help on a regular basis from experienced counselors. Approximately 750 students in the area covered by VTUB participate in Talent Search.
This year, the Department of Education is imposing new admissions criteria on the program: at least one third of those admitted must be classified as "high risk," meaning that they must have a GPA less than 2.5 or have failed to pass the eighth grade Standards of Learning (SOL) examinations.
Tom Wilson, director of Virginia Tech Upward Bound said that the program routinely admits students with those backgrounds, but working with the new restrictions will make things interesting.
In addition to taking classes, students will have the opportunity to visit several college campuses outside of the New River Valley. In the past, students have toured the campuses of East Tennessee State University, Spelman College, Georgetown University, Appalachian State University and many more.
Hard work and college preparation are not the only goals of the summer program. Wilson said students get a chance to see what surviving in a diverse community is all about. Students live in residence halls with roommates who may have very different perspectives.
High schools are served from places as far reaching as Lynchburg and far Southwest Virginia.
"Some schools have very small minority populations. Others have closer to 50-50," Wilson said.
The six weeks aren't without fun, either. Students participate in sports, hikes to the Cascades, movies and, this year, a community service project.
Leave a comment 1 Comment Write a letter to the editor
All letters to the editor must include a name, e-mail, daytime phone number and affiliation to Virginia Tech. Affiliation includes: year and major for students; position and department for faculty and staff; current city for alumni and parents.
Photographic evidence was once considered to be proof positive of an event. However, the advent of digital image editing applications has made it harder and harder to trust what you see in a picture. Photoshop, the leading image editor on the market, is often used to make sneaky edits or even outright fake images that can be difficult to detect. However, there are some online forensics tools that may help you on this, like: <a href="http://www.pskiller.com/">Photoshopped Image Killer</a>.
Reply to this Top