Upward Bound offers extra education

With schools out of session, parents across America are sewing their children's names in their underwear in preparation for a summer away at camp. But for 75 high schoolers from around the state of Indiana, singing "Kum Ba Yah" around a campfire is not enough.\nThese students are part of IU's "Upward Bound" project, a program that offers unique educational opportunities to at-risk students from select Indiana high schools. This year-round program provides participants with distance learning sessions, field trips, weekly tutoring sessions and a six-week residential summer experience on the Bloomington campus. \n"I want the students to get a taste of the academic side of college -- far beyond the typical portrayal of fun, partying and independence," Slavic Language Coordinator Jeff Holdeman said. "I want them to get a taste of the hard work involved in going to college and the feeling of accomplishment that comes from challenging yourself to tackle hard material."\nAnd the students will have a lot of material to tackle. \nThis summer, they will be in class six hours a day studying math, English, laboratory science, writing, film analysis and foreign languages.\n"We vary the languages and in the past have taught Japanese, American Sign Language, Hebrew and Latin," Program Director Marshal Chaifetz said. "We like to teach languages that students have probably not previously been exposed to in their high schools." \nThis year, the students will dig into Russian.\n"They will have the alphabet down within a day or two," Slavic Outreach Coordinator Denise Gardiner said. "But this is not some really boring grammar and language class." \nThe high schoolers will also "be exposed to the richness and endless fascinating dimensions of Russian culture," Holdeman said.\n"We want our students to learn about the world that lies outside their own community and country," Chaifetz said.\nThe goal of the program is to keep these kids learning about the outside world beyond high school.\n"Our goals are to ensure that our students graduate high school and undertake postsecondary education," said Chaifetz. "We are most proud of our college-going rate" \nThe statistics back him up. Of the 70 graduates of the Upward Bound project, 99 percent graduated from high school and 88 percent went on to college. At least two-thirds of the students in this program are first-generation college students.\n"A student given a good learning environment, an interesting topic of study and the support of classmates and the instructor will always exceed their own expectations and the expectations of their teacher," Holdeman said.