Being named the Inaugural Upward Bound Director for Sampson County Schools seven years ago was a full circle moment for me because I had been an Upward Bound student in Bladen County. I LOVED the students that I was honored to serve! For the 2 years that I was the Director, our students toured 23 colleges and enjoyed 69 experiential field trips. They spent 6 weeks at UNC-Wilmington and East Carolina University as part of our Summer Academy: RISE UP. We spent Spring Break in Asheville, which was the first visit to the mountains for many students. We traveled over 7500 miles. Our student leaders clocked many service-learning hours through the Goodwill Community Foundation, Salvation Army, Boys & Girls Club, The Food Bank of Central & Eastern NC, local nursing homes, local schools, and more. Our After-School Academies and Saturday Academies were engaging, aligned to the standards, and infused with literacy and STEM. We partnered with many entities including Code the Dream, The SAS Institute, Betabox, Virtual Job Shadow, and more. I thank God for granting me the opportunity to work with a team to design a high quality year-around college readiness framework for students in a distressed Tier 1 county! One's address should not dictate one's access!
#SupplementalLearning #HighQualityLearning #Access #ClosingOpportunityGaps #VesselForJesus