GALESBURG — The Carl Sandburg College TRIO Upward Bound program has been awarded a new five-year grant cycle worth more than $1.5 million from the US Department of Education to serve area high school students working to become first-generation college graduates.

 

Under the grant, Sandburg’s Upward Bound program will receive $312,480 each year through 2027. Upward Bound is a federally funded program that is free to participants. Its goals are to assist high school students in achieving academic success, develop well-rounded citizens and help students with their transition into post-secondary education, with the goal of obtaining a college degree.

 

Sandburg’s Upward Bound program serves 67 Knox County high school students from the Abingdon-Avon, Galesburg, Knoxville and ROWVA school districts each year. Participants must be a first-generation (neither parent with whom they live has a bachelor’s degree) college-bound student and/or meet income or academic guidelines. Sandburg has hosted a TRIO Upward Bound program since 1999.

 

“Being awarded this grant cycle means Sandburg will be able to continue to positively support and impact young people in our area as they work toward achieving their goals,” said Sandburg TRIO Upward Bound director Christopher Williams, an Upward Bound alumnus from East St. Louis who was part of the program at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. “Upward Bound gives students the backing and tools they often need to be successful in high school and to become one of the first in their families to graduate from college.”

 

In the most recent data set from 2020-21 academic year, Sandburg’s Upward Bound program retained and graduated 99 percent of its participants, and 100 percent of participants graduated from high school with a college prep curriculum. Additionally, 84 percent of students in the program recorded a higher grade point average.

 

For more information about the Sandburg Upward Bound program, contact Christopher Williams at 309.341.5448 or cwilliams@sandburg.edu.