Flashback: It’s the first day of college, and you don’t know a single soul, let alone how to navigate around campus to find your classes. For most students, this can be a frightening experience. For the ETSU students who have experienced the Upward Bound program, however, the first day is about as intimidating as the Easter Bunny.
UB, is an academic support program designed to increase high school students’ opportunities in attending college. The nationwide program began in the mid-1980s. ETSU serves as the host campus for East Tennessee and currently provides service for about 150 high school students in the region.
“I felt like we had a jumpstart on college,” said freshman Nicole Morris, now a pre-education major. “It was so helpful to get a first-hand experience before all the other freshman.” She participated in UB from 2003 to 2006.
Freshman Laken Bailey said she was involved with UB during all four years of high school. “UB changed the way I looked at school, not as an option, but as something I wanted to do,” she said.
UB is one of eight Federal TRIO programs, which are educational opportunity outreach programs designed to motivate and support students from disadvantaged backgrounds, according to the U.S. Department of Education. Students are selected based on recommendations from local educators, social workers, clergy or other interested parties, and all applicants must submit an application online through www.grants.gov. According to www.ed.gov, more than 61,000 students around the U.S. participated in UB in 2005, and the program had more than $275 million in funding that year.
Students involved must meet specific requirements – either their family income meets federal guidelines or neither parent obtained a degree from a four-year college or both.
“The biggest thing is overcoming poverty boundaries,” said Stephen Hendrix, program specialist for UB at ETSU. “We try to provide as much transportation to events as possible, and everything is at no cost.”
This year alone has seen two big changes in the ETSU program. “We have moved our academic session from Saturday mornings to Monday nights so that we can have better attendance at our events,” Hendrix said. More emphasis is also being placed on ACT preparation.
Students in the program meet once a month on campus for the academic sessions, which include preparation in math, laboratory science, composition, literature, and foreign language. UB staff members also meet with students once a week at their high schools. The students are also able to experience what campus life is like at ETSU for six weeks during the summer. They live in the dorms and are able to take two classes. The program pays for all expenses and tuition.
Junior Brandon Triplett is a summer resident adviser for the program and works in ETSU’s UB office. He was also a student at Tusculum College UB during high school. “I have seen all sides of the Upward Bound program,” he said.
Although many students who graduate from the program here decide to attend ETSU, the students can go anywhere they wish. “We have one student, who is from Johnson City, at Yale this year,” Hendrix said.
UB follows each student for the next seven years of their lives after high school graduation or until they graduate from college
“So far, 85 percent of past participants had graduated from college, up through last year,” said Susan Graves, assistant director for UB at ETSU.
“The staff has been there for me through thick and thin,” Morris said. “The friends I have made through the program are going to be my best friends for life.”
Bailey agrees. “I not only made a lot of great relationships, some of which I am still very close to, but it gave me the opportunity to learn how to focus on school and still have a social life,” she said. “It gave me the skills I needed to graduate high school and go on to college.

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