Program Helps Students Get a Grip on Higher Education

The high school students in Jim Wolf’s marine biology class at Cal Lutheran are wrapping up their dissection project on dogfish.

With the blue sky beckoning right outside, these teens--some from Southern California neighborhoods better known for violence than academic achievement--have given up their summer vacation for long hours under fluorescent lights and the smell of embalming fluid.

A few students sit back warily as their group leader slices into one of the dogfish, which looks like a miniature stingray lying belly up in its wax-lined dissection pan.

“You have to be careful,” cautions one of Wolf’s pupils, Linda Tostado, 15, of Boyle Heights. “The dogfish has scales that, if you rub them the wrong way, they can hurt you.”

Linda, is one of 51 participants in the Upward Bound math and science program at Cal Lutheran, which helps to prepare high school students from disadvantaged backgrounds for admission to four-year colleges and universities.

Some have gone on to prestigious universities such as Yale, Stanford, UC Berkeley and MIT.

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For some, like 17-year-old Michelle Nunez of Camarillo, the Upward Bound program is a lifesaver: She was ready to drop out of Rio Mesa High School in Oxnard after having a baby two years ago.

“I had planned all my work around the baby, but because he came two months early it was really hard and my grades fell tremendously,” Michelle says.

Now entering her senior year at Rio Mesa, she says she was encouraged to go back to school through her success in Upward Bound. She wants to become an obstetrician.

“It really helped me out,” Michelle says, adding that the program was key in her earning a 3.5 grade-point average in honors and advanced placement classes during her junior year.

“I’m walking with my head held high now,” she says.

The 4-year-old math and science program at Cal Lutheran, which runs through Aug. 9, is merely one facet of Upward Bound.

The broader enrichment and outreach program, entering its 16th year in Ventura County, provides financial aid advice, academic counseling, visits to college campuses and other services to students who otherwise would find it difficult to continue their education after high school because of financial difficulties or other circumstances.

One goal of the Upward Bound math and science program is to provide a positive experience in subjects traditionally dismissed by high school students as dry and boring.

“We really emphasize ‘living’ material--hands-on stuff,” Wolf says, surveying his students seated at their tables and examining marine specimens in jars of formaldehyde. “Some of these students have never been to the beach before, which is something most of us here take for granted.”

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Although the classroom buzzes with activity, there is surprisingly little clowning around.

“These students know that being here is an honor,” Wolf says. “Being selected is a very competitive process.”

Competitive may be an understatement. Thirty-one students returned from last year’s crop, leaving only 20 openings for new participants; 120 applied.