BUTTE — Some self-motivated kids are wrapping up their Upward Bound Summer Academy experience at East Middle School in Butte.
The six-week program allows up to 40 students from Anaconda, Butte, and Helena to stay in the college dorms at Montana Tech to get hands-on research assistance from college professors.
With the help of the Upward Bound staff, 36 students presented their research findings at a symposium. The research projects ranged from technology to biology pairing students in different age groups from 9th grade to 12th grade.
Organizers say the Upward Bound program along with a grant from the Army Outreach Education Program UNITE gives students who wouldn’t otherwise have access to college the opportunity to be inspired.
Adam Maes, an alum of the Upward Bound summer program and Director of Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science program, and the UNITE Program says the goal is to simulate a college experience, and with a supplemental grant from UNITE, several college professors were hired to develop research programs and work with the determined students.
Created from trio programs, the Upward Bound program's goal is to motivate and educate students on how to go to college. Specifically, students whose parents might not have a bachelor’s degree and students who may come from a low-income family and area.
“And that’s really the goal of the whole program is just to make sure that our students feel comfortable, that they know that they can do bigger, better things with their futures and just that education is just a really powerful tool and doorway,” said Maes.
Butte High School student and Upward Bound participant Taylor Eveland joined three other students from Butte in a research project about DNA in gray whales. While the high school junior hopes to study culinary arts in Missoula next year, she says the experience in Upward Bound has been a huge help in planning for her future.
"I think I found it intriguing just all the opportunities it gave us and growing up. I never really had those opportunities, like, I never really had out-of-state trips or to go to Florida. So, this program has just brought real-world experiences I never would get otherwise,” said Eveland. “I think this program was able to pull me out of the idea that I wasn’t going to be able to make it into college and so I think due to it I will probably end up going to college and I have more of an idea of what I want to do to this program and it helped me pick my dream college and where I’m going.”
