For nearly 30 years, thousands of low-income students who aspire to being the first in their family to attend college have made their way to San Jose State University for help through Upward Bound.
Now, President Bush’s proposal to eliminate federal funding in 2006 for Upward Bound and other key college outreach programs has educators worried that some of those students will miss out on a college opportunity.
Upward Bound works through universities, including Stanford and National Hispanic universities, and community agencies. It assists students in schools with high poverty rates who are low-income or who would be the first in their family to go to college.
“These programs are critical because school districts like East Side are cutting counseling and library services, so a lot of our outreach personnel are being reduced due to the current budget crisis,” said Art Darin, chief academic officer for the East Side Union High School District in San Jose, Calif.
Darin said loss of the federal programs would mean the students who need help the most may not get the information about or access to college they need.
Upward Bound was created as part of President Johnson’s “War on Poverty.” It provides students with intensive college preparation. At San Jose State, Upward Bound serves 150 students a year. Most of the students are Latino, African-American and Asian-American.
Since San Jose State began tracking students in 2001, 100 percent of the Upward Bound participants have graduated from high school, 95 percent entered some kind of postsecondary education and 71 percent graduated from college within six years, said Frank Castillo, interim director of pre-college programs.
Upward Bound “opened my eyes to see how important college was and what I needed to get there,” said Lizeth Sanchez, 23, a San Jose High Academy graduate who is now a graduate student in recreation management at San Jose State.
San Jose State also runs GEAR UP, which is targeted for cuts too. It serves 1,650 students in the East Side Union High School District and 900 students in the San Jose Unified District.
The program helps disadvantaged students starting in seventh grade and follows them all the way through high school, making sure they get the counseling and academic support they need.

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