Students Get a Lift on Road to College

Michelle Munoz was just hoping for a taste of the college experience when she enrolled last year in Upward Bound, a college readiness program at Cal Lutheran University in Thousands Oaks.

What she got instead was a five-star meal.

During tutoring sessions and at Saturday school, the 17-year-old senior at Channel Islands High School in Oxnard received help filling out college applications, applying for financial aid and even writing a personal essay outlining why she deserved university admission.

The result was offers from seven schools, including UC Berkeley, Loyola Marymount and USC. She’ll start at UCLA this summer.

“Upward Bound offered so much support,” said Munoz, who will graduate from Channel Islands in June, 11th in her class and with a grade point average several ticks above 4.0.

On Sunday, she was among two dozen Ventura County high school students--most the sons and daughters of immigrants--who participated in Upward Bound’s graduation before dozens of family members and friends.

“I’ll be the first in my family to go to college,” she said. “I feel like I’ve accomplished a big task and I feel like a role model, too.”

It’s a familiar story for Upward Bound.

For more than two decades, the federally funded program has been taking low-income high school students who have the potential to be the first in their families to earn a college degree and giving them the skills they need to get one.

Beginning when they are sophomores, students sharpen their academic abilities during weekly tutoring sessions, twice-a-month Saturday school and an intensive five-week summer session where they attend college-level courses such as calculus, modular biology and English literature.

There are 550 Upward Bound programs nationwide. The one in Ventura County is open to 60 students at high schools in Santa Paula, Oxnard and Camarillo.

Nearly 100% of Upward Bound graduates have gone to college and 80% earn degrees.

“I’m really proud of these kids every year,” said program director Oscar Cobian. “I love seeing the way they interact with each other. They become like a family during the academic year, and they influence each other in achieving their goals of going to college.”

Students who go through the program often get into some of the best universities in the nation.

Last year, Upward Bound graduates earned admission to Harvard, MIT, Stanford and Duke--not to mention a range of top-caliber UC and Cal State schools.

The tradition continues this year. Santa Paula High School senior Michael Flores is headed to Pepperdine University, while Camarillo High’s Erica Ultreras is going to UC Santa Barbara.

Five Upward Bound graduates will attend Cal Lutheran this fall, the largest number to commit to the Thousand Oaks university since it began hosting the program 22 years ago.

That number reflects an increased emphasis on recruiting some of Cal Lutheran’s home-grown talent, said Darryl Calkins, dean of undergraduate enrollment. But it also reflects the university’s growing commitment to attracting a diverse student population.

“I’ve always tried to peg Upward Bound as an important source of really excellent students, not just because they are academically prepared but because of the perspective they bring to the classroom,” Calkins said.

“I think what you’re seeing is a reinvigorated commitment to this program,” he said. “It’s a symbiotic relationship. We support it and it supports us.”

Cal Lutheran is putting its money behind its commitment.

For the first time, the university is providing $1,500 scholarships this year to Upward Bound graduates who enroll there. The campus is also providing an additional $2,000 multicultural grant to Upward Bound graduates and other students who come from backgrounds that historically have been underrepresented on college campuses.

Camarillo High School senior Anna Lopez fared even better.

The 17-year-old will attend Cal Lutheran next year on a $10,000 academic merit scholarship, thanks to her nearly straight-A school record and her connection with Upward Bound.

“It’s such a great program,” Anna said. “I only wish it could serve more people. I thought it would be helpful getting me through my stressful senior year, and it did exactly that.”

Cobian said he has applied for a U.S. Department of Education grant that would extend a stripped-down version of the program to 1,000 Ventura County high school students.

Meanwhile, Cobian continues preparing his current crop of students for higher education.

Just last month, he took some on a Northern California college tour, visiting Cal State Monterey Bay and Stanford University, where Upward Bound grads abound.

They also stopped by San Francisco State University, where Upward Bound alumna Mayra Jimenez provided a campus tour. Jimenez started this school year with the program, but graduated from Oxnard High at the semester break and enrolled at the university.

She was able to do so in part because of the extra high school credits she earned each summer through Upward Bound’s sessions at Cal Lutheran, where students take college-level courses.

“If it wasn’t for Upward Bound I wouldn’t be here,” said Jimenez, a criminal justice major.

“It provides an opportunity for people who wouldn’t usually hear about college,” she said. “Without that program, a lot of students would be lost trying to figure it out on their own.”