College preparation program is bound to keep teens learning

Though a sunny summer day beckoned, more than two dozen teenagers sat in a dim room last week watching a slide show about Old Dominion University. They learned about the school's history, its majors, the application process and tuition. A walking tour followed.

The oldest of the bunch won't graduate from high school for another two years. But that was no big deal for these teens, members of Paul D. Camp Community College's new Upward Bound program.

The community college welcomed its first crop of Upward Bound participants in June with the message that it's never too early to start thinking about your future. The students - rising high school freshman, sophomores and juniors - come from Franklin, Suffolk and Southampton County.

The federal program aims to prepare students for college. At least two-thirds of participants are from both low-income families and families in which neither parent has earned a bachelor's degree. The rest of the spots go to students in either category.

In South Hampton Roads, Upward Bound also is offered through Norfolk State University, ODU and Tidewater Community College. It serves 235 students from Chesapeake, Norfolk and Portsmouth through programs at those schools.

About 40 of the 50 students selected for Upward Bound at Paul D. Camp signed up for the six-week summer session, which began June 23. The rest will start in the fall, with a dozen or so students remaining on the waiting list.

"It's a good program," said 14-year-old Desmond Ellsworth, a rising freshman at Southampton High School. "I get to see what college is like."

The students meet Monday through Friday to study English, math, science and other subjects, said director B. Gail Vaughan. They've toured college campuses, Norfolk's Chrysler Museum of Art and the Virginia Aquarium & Marine Science Center in Virginia Beach - firsts for some of the teens.

During the school year, they will attend counseling sessions, plus tutoring and writing classes.

Participants will earn small stipends each semester and at the end of the summer as motivation to stay in the program, Vaughan said. The college has provided backpacks and other school supplies as incentives.

A roughly $250,000 annual grant from the U.S. Department of Education funds the program. Students don't pay for anything - not even meals or transportation.

At North Carolina's Chowan University, where Vaughan worked previously, many of the Upward Bound students went on to earn bachelor's or master's degrees, she said.

Last week's ODU campus tour might have drawn in at least one of the Upward Bound students. Angalic Bryant, a rising freshman at Suffolk's Lakeland High School, said she is now considering the university because of what she learned.

"They tell you more stuff than a pamphlet will," the 14-year-old said. "You get to ask questions."

Hattie Brown Garrow, (757) 222-5562, hattie.brown@pilotonline.com