This June ‘Upward Bound’ began its 37th year by sponsoring a successful summer program for 60 disadvantaged students from Blair and Cambria counties. Since that time the staff and Director Anne L. Heinzeroth have been busy planning and conducting a challenging and educational academic year for its program participants.
Upward Bound is a federal TRIO program, funded 100 percent by the U.S. Department of Education. Provided at no cost to the participants, the program is designed to prepare low income, potential first generation college students for post-secondary education.
Since 1965, the Saint Francis College Upward Bound Program has provided services to more than 1,500 students from Blair, Cambria, Lancaster and Somerset counties. Currently, the program serves 85 high school students from Blair and Cambria counties.
On average, 93 percent of program graduates pursue a post-secondary degree. After completing high school 80 percent of program graduates earn a college degree within five years. This statistic is all the more impressive when one considers that only 26 percent of today’s college students graduate within five years of beginning college.
The program has recently restructured to serve all of Blair County and have added some new services, such as PSAT cram sessions. Presently, Tyrone Area High School has nine students participating in Upward Bound, and Bellwood-Antis High School has four students participating. Those seniors are the first graduating class from both respected schools of the program, and according to Heinzeroth, those students have enjoyed their experience.
“I’m an alumni of the program, so I feel like I know first hand how much it can help students learn more about college and prepare to go on to college,” said Heinzeroth. “My parents didn’t go to college and they didn’t know if they could afford to send me to college, and I think Upward Bound really helped me realize that college was definitely an option for me.”
She added, “The program also helped expand my horizons, to look at some colleges I probably wouldn’t have considered if I hadn’t participated in Upward Bound.”
Heinzeroth said she thought her story was very typical of so many kids that she works with through the program. Upward Bound has many kids that come in during their freshman and sophmore year of high school that have the desire to go to college and to pursue some type of degree, but they’re not really sure what they’re interested in or how they’re going to afford it. Cost is especially a concern of parents, and what college would be a good match for the student.
“We really work with them starting through their freshman year to bring up their grades in their home school, prepare for the SATs, visit different colleges and universities, participate in a lot of career day presentations to learn more about different careers and types of fields that might interest them,” said Heinzeroth.
She continued, “We have them prepare their college applications, apply for financial aid and apply for various scholarships so that they can afford to go to college.”
Upward Bound tries to put the students in contact with many of their successful alumni so they know a little bit better what college is going to be like, and perhaps avoid some of the mistakes other freshman college students make when they go to college.
“Our mission is really to help our students go on to some type of post-secondary education, and most of them go on to four-year colleges,” said Heinzeroth. “A few of them might go on to get a technical or associate degree, but most of them are interested in achieving a bachelor’s degree in college someday, and we try to do everything we can to help them achieve that goal.”
Upward Bound is definitely something students in the area should get involved in. Four years ago, Tyrone and Bellwood-Antis were added to the program, and the Saint Francis program would love to see more students from those target schools enrolled in Upward Bound.
The program is a voluntary based experience, so it’s really aimed for students who are motivated to be in Upward Bound. It applies to a particular type of student because it does take a lot of time and hard work. It’s not all fun, there’s a lot of educational work that is done.
“We’re really looking for kids that are very motivated, that are eager to try new experiences, that are willing to go out of their area and maybe meet some new people and try some new things,” said Heinzeroth.
With any program offered, there are always misconceptions. All the services at Upward Bound are free. Many parents are leery of programs, worried about what the catch is, or think there is going to be some type of hidden cost. Upward Bound’s services are completely free of charge to the students who are eligible to participate.
Another misconception is kids think they can only be in Upward Bound and can’t participate in other extra-curricular activities at their high school, which is not true.
Heinzeroth explained, “We try to work with a student’s schedule so that they can participate both in Upward Bound and still be involved in all of their other extra-curricular activities. We’re really flexible on terms of our attendance policy. Students still get the most out of the program, but they can still be in a lot of other things at their home school.”
Upward Bound works a lot with PSAT and SAT training so students can achieve the highest scores possible. The program has found that its students definitely improve individual scores on PSAT and SAT testing. Many students take the PSATs without any experience, and a lot of times students take the SATs without being familiar with how the test is set up or the types of questions given.
Heinzeroth stated, “We’ve seen that our kids scores have gone up in just learning more about the test format, developing and learning some more vocabulary words and learning how to take educational guesses on the exam.”
“I think our seniors in particular, Upward Bound has helped them a lot with testing and preparing them for college,” Heinzeroth said.
If any area residents would benefit from Upward Bound’s services and would like more information about the program, please contact its office to receive an application and brochure. Director of Saint Francis College Upward Bound Anne L. Heinzeroth can be reached at aheinzeroth@francis.edu or (814) 472-3023.
