| Federal program helps low-income students prepare for college |
By: SUZANNE ROOK, Managing Editor
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Posted: Friday, July 10, 2009 9:19 pm
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After four years in St. Olaf’s Upward Bound program, Josh Titus, left, and Vokee Lee, right, are ready for college. Also pictured is Teaching Assistant Connie Goetdke.
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NORTHFIELD — This fall, while other St. Olaf College freshmen unpack their belongings and adjust to the novelty of campus life, Dominick Fields will be two credits ahead of his peers.
For the last four summers, Fields has spent six weeks at St. Olaf, participating in the school’s Upward Bound program. Soon, he says he’ll realize what he always saw for himself: a college degree.
Looking at how his parents struggled because of their lack of education, Fields realized that without some assistance, college, for him, might never be a reality.
Upward Bound, a federally funded program launched in 1965 and in its 21st year at St. Olaf, helps students from low-income families and/or those where neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree prepare for college.
Figures from the 2000-01 school year show that nationwide 74 percent of Upward Bound participants enrolled in a four-year institution and 25 percent in a two-year institution. The numbers are similar at St. Olaf, according to information released in 2008 by Upward Bound and the college, with at least 95 percent enrolling in post-secondary educational institutions.
St. Olaf’s UB director, Mari Tototzintle runs the year-round program at St. Paul’s Humboldt and Central highs.
During the school year, Tototzintle and her staff hold regular one-on-one and group meetings with the students. They check on grades, class participation, teach study skills, tutor, host ACT prep classes and link participants to mentors: St. Olaf students and Upward Bound alum.
Students are recruited in ninth grade, said Tototzintle, though some join in their sophomore year. The desire to attend college is more important than academic achievement, she said, adding that many participants are at risk academically. The program, she said, helps encourage students, showing them that they, too, can achieve.
“It’s a very intense program,” said Tototzintle. “We try to expose kids to the bigger picture and how an education can help them.”
Josh Titus, who like Fields, graduated from Humboldt and will attend St. Olaf, said he joined Upward Bound at the encouragement of friends Fields and Dahir Wako.
“It seemed kind of fun to go to college,” he said, adding that thanks to Upward Bound, the three have become closer. “We have shared goals,” he said.
This summer St. Olaf hosts 77 participants who go home on weekends. During the day they attend classes from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. — English, math, science and electives like art, Spanish and literary magazine where students write and publish their own newsletter, “The UB Times.” Rising seniors take Post Secondary Exploration, touring area college campuses while graduating seniors take a college course.
Once the program ends July 24, Titus, Fields and Wako will return to St. Olaf and take another course. When their time in Upward Bound is complete, the three will now look to its affiliate Students Support Services at St. Olaf, for assistance.
The program’s services range, according to the St. Olaf Web site, “from advising and employment referral to sponsoring leadership activities; from tutoring to graduate school preparation; from incentives for academic achievement to financial aid advising.”
The three, anxious for classes to begin, say they feel comfortable — and ready — for college.
— Suzanne Rook is the managing editor and covers education. She can be reached at srook@northfieldnews.com or 645-1113. |
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