The University of Central Arkansas has been awarded a $250,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue its Upward Bound program.
Upward Bound helps first-generation college students who are of low socio-economic status. The program provides services for students who need academic support in order to pursue an education beyond high school.
The grant will be used to provide free services for 58 students from Perryville, Bigelow, Morrilton, Mayflower and Nemo Vista high schools, said Nancy Burris, director of Upward Bound. Services are provided during the nine-month academic year and the six weeks summer residential program at UCA.
Each student receives an individualized education action plan tailored to meet his or her potential and has weekly contact by their tutor, counselor, and Upward Bound staff member. Also, students take an assessment to help determine what career they may what to pursue, a reading assessment to identity strengths and weaknesses, and a learning styles inventory to help determine under what optimum conditions they learn best. Students practice taking ACT tests during tutoring sessions.
“Our students tell us they would not have gone to college or made a successful transition from high school to college had it not been for the Upward Bound program,” Burris said.
Interim Provost Steve Runge said the program greatly aids high school students of low socio-economic status.
“I am very supportive of the Upward Bound program and am proud that UCA is playing an important role in helping more young people from central Arkansas be successful in pursuing a college education,” he said. “Upward Bound provides tutoring services for high school students, brings students to UCA to experience work in our classes and research laboratories, affords the students an opportunity to live in student housing on campus, and shows these students that college is attainable.”
For more information about UCA’s Upward Bound program, visit https://uca.edu/upwardbound/.
