Clatsop Community College kicked off its 30th Annual Upward Bound Summer Academy (UBSA) on Tuesday June 20, 2023. The UBSA continues through July 27, 2023. Classes and project groups run Monday through Thursday from 8:45 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. There are field trips every Friday.
This federally funded educational outreach program motivates and supports high school students in preparing for college. The US Department of Education provides $353,059 annually for the Upward Bound program at Clatsop Community College. Upward Bound works with students from families where the parent(s) does not have a four-year bachelor’s degree and/or are economically disadvantaged. Upward Bound serves 73 high school students from Astoria, Seaside, and Warrenton.
The academy consists of two components: academic classes and experiential learning. Students involved in the program have the opportunity to participate in a variety of activities, including experiencing several educational and cultural field trips, taking academic classes, partaking in community service projects, hearing various outside speakers, and becoming acquainted with the Clatsop College campus and some of the college faculty and staff.
Students are fed breakfast when they arrive at Clatsop Community College. Then they take two one-hour academic classes. This year the academic classes are: Chinook Wawa, Math games and real life math, Ecology of the Columbia River estuary, and English and Literature.
After lunch, students participate in a three-hour experiential learning project group. The project groups are: Clatsop Wilderness Survival and Stewardship; Wellness; Improvisation and Public Speaking, and Columbia River Maritime Museum encounters with the estuary and the people of the Lower Columbia.
As part of the orientation for participants on the first day of the academy, a group former Upward Bound and Talent Search students attending various Oregon Community Colleges and Universities spoke to the academy about life on a college campus. Their impressions and suggestions provided current students in Upward Bound with a clear understanding of what the students will need to succeed in college.
For more information about Upward Bound, please contact Jon Graves at 503-325-2898
