CSUMB’s Upward Bound making a difference

A local program at Cal State Monterey Bay is encouraging high school kids to fall in love college before they can even start applying. The Upward Bound program at CSUMB has been showing high school kids that anyone determined enough can go to college.

“We work with first generation, low-income students so if they’re first in their family to go to college we offer services to prepare them to go to a four-year university,” said Blanca Melchor, an education advising specialist for CSUMB.

Those students who qualify are given tutoring and mentoring during the school year, and a more hands-on experience during the summer.

“So they live at CSUMB for 6 weeks and take university courses so they’re actually enrolled in a four-unit academic class,” said Melchor.

And they get to take an elective class, like disc golf as you see here, dance, or guitar.

“Our students get really excited because they get to keep the guitar after the session,” said Melchor.

Joel Ruiz was enrolled in the Upward Bound program and has now come back as a mentor while attending UC Santa Barbara.

“Without the program I wouldn’t have even thought of college, I wouldn’t have known how to fill our financial aid applications, what I should put on my applications for college, what I would say in my personal statements,” said Ruiz.

He’s mentoring students like Alvin Mendoza who’s taking in the college experience while still in high school.

“Living in a college situation has really made it, like, opened my eyes to how it actually is rather than just looking from the outside,” said Mendoza.

It teaches independence and in some cases, may open a student’s eyes to a future career.

“So far I’ve taken two science courses here at upward bound, and generally the material is very difficult, but I’ve been enjoying it and it’s been telling me that I want to continue in the path of biology,” said Mendoza.

Upward Bound isn’t just a summer camp, it’s a path to higher education that kids may never have known about otherwise.

“For our students in our program it’s not a question of if, whether you’re going to college or not, more of what college are you going to,” said Melchor.

“Just keep looking forward and want to go to college and want to graduate and just know that nothing can stop you but yourself,” said Ruiz.

Here’s a great stat about the program. While about 41 percent of high school students will go on to some form of college, those enrolled in SCUMB’s Upward Bound see a 100 percent graduation rate and 100 percent go on to a college or university.

For more information, go to this link: https://csumb.edu/eosp/upward-bound