Onward and Upward: A College-Access Progam Celebrates Sixty Years

While the August 2 party at Cram Alumni Barn was festive—with Upward Bound alumni from the 1980s through the 2000s enjoying lots to eat and drink under the deck's striped awning—it took place during unprecedented political upheaval in Washington, DC, that is threatening long-established social and educational programs.

Grady went on to matriculate at Bowdoin, graduating in 1990, before earning her master’s degree and becoming a social studies high school teacher in Gorham, Maine. With neither parent having pursued higher education, Grady said she didn’t know how to “access college.” Upward Bound opened that door for her.

Her partner, Don Jordan, also attended the party with her. (The two met at Upward Bound in the mid-eighties). Like Grady, Jordan grew up in Downeast Maine with parents who made ends meet by taking hourly, seasonal jobs common to that part of the state, like clam digging, wreath making, and house cleaning.

“Upward Bound removed a lot of barriers,” Jordan said, making it possible for him to study mechanical engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and earn a PhD in aerospace engineering at University of Austin, Texas. Jordan taught and ran a research lab at University of Virginia for twenty years before starting his own engineering consulting firm, Dojo Research.

“We want to elevate TRIO,” Jordan said, referring to the federal programs, including Upward Bound, that were launched in 1965 as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s war on poverty.

“Grassroots stories”

It is stories like these—from Upward Bound alumni who have had careers beyond their childhood expectations—that do the most to convince policymakers to keep funding Upward Bound year after year, said Jen Rudolf, who works for Upward Bound's national office and was in Maine for the anniversary party.

“Upward Bound creates a ripple effect that breaks generational poverty,” she said. “One kid goes to college, and then their kids go to college. It changes the game for entire families.”

Ginny Ward, director of Upward Bound at Bowdoin, noted in her speech to party guests that Upward Bound's “foundational premise—that access to educational opportunity combined with the support and resources for completing a degree would raise students out of poverty and improve their economic opportunities—remains as critical today as it was sixty years ago.”

At the party, Ward invited attendees to share their own Upward Bound stories. Several spoke emotionally about rising above trauma and poverty.

“This place saved my life,” a man who introduced himself as Keith said. When he was accepted into the program as a teenager, he was reeling from his mother’s death and living in foster care. “I learned a lot and it constantly saved my life. I was supposed to be dead when I was twenty.” Today he runs a transfer station and owns a home, an outcome he said he marvels at every day.

Kevin Thompson, who attended Upward Bound in 1995 and 1996, described his Upward Bound summer experience as “life-changing and eye-opening.”

“I grew up in a home with economic challenges, which limits what you think is possible,” he said. Had he not attended Upward Bound, Thompson believes he’d still be living in Machias, working locally to support his family. Instead, he earned his degree in business from University of Southern Maine and has worked as a relationships manager for twenty years at WEX, a global payment processing company based in Maine—“a great career,” he said.

Now he is encouraging his children, who are twelve and fourteen, to aim for college. “Upward Bound helped my children set their sights higher, too,” he added. “It's been exponentially beneficial.”

Slideshow: A College Fair for the College Bound, a Visit from a Senator's Aide, and a Visit to the Archives