“I was kind of a shy, quiet person the first couple of years at Round Valley High School in Mendocino County,” he recalls. A friend who was in a college prep program named Upward Bound got Paul involved in his sophomore year.
How did Upward Bound help him “break out?” Well, one thing was a class—in clowning! “We had to learn how to be a clown and, you know, you’ve gotta go up and act goofy in front of people!”
It wasn’t just a matter of doing “wacky things” in the classroom, however. The experience helped Paul build his self-confidence. His mentors taught him to ask questions about how to get to college. The more he learned, the more he opened up. The prospect of college grew real. He took summer Upward Bound classes at HSU, which familiarized him with the Arcata campus. His belief in himself deepened and that became the springboard for earning his degree in Native American Studies.
Today, Paul is an advisor for Talent Search, a companion federal program that, like Upward Bound, readies youngsters for college. “We start with sixth graders, all the way up to high school,” he says. The object is to encourage children and their families to begin thinking early about higher education. Along the way they pick up valuable tips on the “mechanics”—college entrance requirements, application forms, scholarships, financial aid, career alternatives.
“The student goes home and talks with the parents, telling them what’s required,” Paul says. He distributes handouts to share with loved ones. “I meet the parents on back-to-school nights, to get them more involved and keep them involved,” he adds.
Megan Blanchard, a current HSU undergrad and the first generation in her family to attend a university, also discovered higher education through Upward Bound. A graduate of Weaverville High School in Trinity County and an aspiring midwife, Megan knew she wanted to go to college—that was not the issue. Rather, she realized from a tender age that only the top 10% of a given class was assumed to be college-bound. “I was a straight-C student in elementary school, but I got no less than a 3.0 in high school. I didn’t have very much direction I guess and my parents didn’t go to college at all.”
Upward Bound readied her for a higher degree by bolstering her writing skills, reinforcing the counseling she received and enrolling her in classes at HSU that she could not tap into at her high school. “Astronomy, physics, literature, Shakespeare—they didn’t offer those unless you were in AP (advanced placement) classes. [Upward Bound] helps a lot of kids out and I personally would never have gone to college [without it]. I’d probably still be living in Weaverville, doing dead-end jobs, trying to figure out what I’m going to do with my life.”
Humboldt State University is fortunate to have three programs that put North Coast middle school and high school students on the path to college, particularly youngsters from disadvantaged backgrounds. Collectively, the federal programs are nicknamed TRiO. Beside Talent Search and Upward Bound, there is Student Support Services. All three are tailored to help young people overcome class, social and cultural barriers to higher education.
“We often help ‘diamonds in the rough,’” says Martha Johnson, an Academic Advisor for Talent Search. “They are students who are in foster situations or homeless and have no encouragement or support at home for college goals—but they have GPA’s (grade point averages) of 3.5 to 4.0 or even higher! It’s a great feeling to see these students here on campus, doing well.”
Johnson spotlights the many individuals who never dreamed they would make it to college, until they enrolled in a TRiO program. She quotes an HSU graduate, now a high school French teacher, who said after her first semester, “I never really thought I would make it. I never thought that people I don’t even know would give me money for college!”
The TRiO programs do just that, encouraging youngsters’ academic successes and giving them opportunities to build on them.
Congress established the programs in the 1960s. Talent Search is an in-school, college entrance program for identified students in 6th through 12th grades who are the first in their families to go to college. All services are free and available at each student’s school. Academic advisors visit regularly, and enrollees go to Humboldt State and College of the Redwoods to get acquainted.
Talent Search serves 19 Humboldt County campuses, from Hoopa Valley High School and Trinity Valley Elementary School in the north to McKinleyville High, Arcata High and Eureka High in central Humboldt and South Fork and Fortuna High Schools in the south, among others.
Upward Bound, which operates year-round, is geared to youngsters in grades nine and ten who have greater academic need than Talent Search students. The summer segment enables them to live in Humboldt State’s residence halls and includes intensive academic instruction in core classes.
During the regular school year, the informational and monitoring program encompasses services and support similar to Talent Search. Six area high schools are served in Humboldt and Trinity Counties. Eligible students must show a demonstrated need and come from a limited-income family in which neither parent has four-year college diploma. All outreach is free.
Student Support Services aids currently-enrolled undergraduates through long-running partnerships with key HSU offices: the Learning Center, Financial Aid, Admissions, University Registrar, Advising Center, Housing, and numerous academic departments across campus.
Johnson says, “These partnerships allow us to provide holistic services that address the full range of each student’s experience at HSU. The outcome of this support has helped students persist at a higher rate into their first few years at Humboldt State.”
She adds, “Talent Search and Upward Bound recruit students for the college of their wildest dreams all over the nation, but most of our local TRiO students choose Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods.”
“TRiO has changed my entire life,” Megan Blanchard affirms. “I would never have been where I am at all if I hadn’t been in Upward Bound.”
For details about Upward Bound, dial 707/826-3558. For more information about Talent Search, call (707) 826-4791. Student Support Services can be reached at 826-4781.