SED Program Launches College Careers
Two Upward Bound high school students receive full college scholarships
Two Brighton High School seniors will receive full four-year college scholarships, thanks to an award from the national Posse Foundation and their work at Boston University’s Upward Bound program.
Lance Huggins, Jr., and Thanh LuuNguyen have both been attending Upward Bound, a year-round federally funded program at the School of Education that provides tutoring and college-preparation courses for public high school students beginning their freshman year. Huggins will attend Centre College in Danville, Ky., and LuuNguyen will attend Hamilton College in Clinton, N.Y.
“They’re both great student leaders,” says Mike Dennehy, the director of Upward Bound at BU. “Thanh is a cocaptain of the volleyball team at Brighton High, and Lance has worked hard to get this. This is a really big honor.”
BU has participated since 1989 in the Upward Bound program, which serves low-income and potential first-generation college students in Boston’s public high schools. During the academic year, students attend Upward Bound for four hours each week and receive tutoring, classes in SAT and MCAS preparation, and help with the college application process. In the summer, students can participate in a residential program, where they take classes to prepare them for the upcoming school year.
There are 85 students in the BU Upward Bound program, all of whom entered the program in their first or second year of high school and are expected to remain through graduation. All Upward Bound students enroll in four-year colleges, Dennehy says, and most receive some kind of scholarship.
The Posse Foundation identifies student leaders at public high schools and prepares them to create multicultural student groups — or posses — at various colleges and universities. More than 1,000 students applied for a Posse scholarship this year; Huggins and LuuNguyen were among 51 selected to receive full tuition for four years. Two other Upward Bound students have received Posse scholarships in the past, Dennehy says.
The program is a part of Boston University’s Boston Public Schools Collaborative Office within the School of Education. More information about Upward Bound and the Posse Foundation is available at their Web sites, www.bu.edu/ub and www.possefoundation.org.