What Is Upward Bound?

For those who don’t know what an upward bound is it is a federally funded program within the United States. This program provides students SAT prep classes for students 9-11 grades who are scheduled to take the SAT of their junior year. Students are required to go to Saturday classes as a part of their stipend. O yes they do get paid for completing their work. In order to receive a stipend, students must attend all Saturday classes, go to the upward bound (UB) lab twice a week, and complete other work that the director wants them to complete. It may sound like a lot of work, but it can actually be fun. You meet new friends, have a chance to stay on a college campus, and have free SAT prep classes. Did I mention that it was free? For the whole summer for rising sophomores and juniors they get a chance to stay on the college campus for free. They have a chance to sleep in real college dorms, eat at the cafeteria, and interact in activities that the staff have planned. The best part is that at the end of the summer, the UB students get to go on a no expense paid college tour to different areas of the United States.

My experience with being a UB student was pretty exciting. I am a Temple Upward Bound student, and completed all the tiring work that my director wanted me to complete. This was not all that bad because I made some great friends from this program and had a chance to visit some amazing places and still got paid. We visited the Boston area and went to Virginia for college tours and still had fun. Temple Upward Bound opened up a lot of opportunities for me such as an internship with PHMC in center city giving me chance to become a blogger, and gave me the SAT prep that I needed. I have to admit that I did not like it at first, but I came to really enjoy this program because of what it has to offer. It also gave me a chance to understand what college is going to be like and how to obtain scholarships because the cost of college is very expensive. I would like to thank UB for all that they have done, and encourage students to look into it because it will benefit you in the long run.