Upward Bound gets funded for next five years

The Upward Bound program at Northeast Texas Community College recently received notification from the United States Department of Education that it will be funded for the next five years.

The grant covers $250,000 per year, for a total of $1.25 million over the five-year span. Upward Bound

Provides support and services to at-risk high school students and helps prepare them for college.

"We are thrilled to have the opportunity to continue the Upward Bound program at NTCC. It is an amazing program that really changes students' lives," Elisa Henninger, Director of Upward bound, said.

This is the 13th year that NTCC has participated in †the Upward Bound program. Since then, it has served hundreds of local students. Currently, Upward Bound employs on-site coordinators at Chapel Hill, Paul Pewitt, Pittsburg, Mount Pleasant and Daingerfield high schools.

Students who participate in the NTCC Upward Bound Program enjoy great success rates. Between 90 and 100 percent of students who complete the program graduate from high school. An average of 90% of upward bound students enroll in college and most of those go on to complete college.

"Compared with the general student population, our Upward Bound kids are succeeding at a very high rate. If not for the services offered through Upward Bound, many of these students who go on to do great things may have dropped out early on," Henninger said.

In addition to †services in the schools, Upward Bound offers students the opportunity to take college classes and live on the NTCC campus during the summers of their junior and senior years of high school.

"We believe that giving students a taste of what college is like helps to better prepare them. You can't really know what something is like until you experience it first hand," Henninger said.

For more information about the Upward Bound Program at NTCC, please call 903-434-8219.