Students Make the Grade for College

Upward Bound alums Qingping Diep and Sabrina Sen, both of Lowell, teacher Sajeda Khalifa of Billerrica, Colleen Winn of Hudson, N.H., director of Pre-Collegiate Trio Program and Gear Up, Drashti Soni of Lowell, and ELA teaching assistant Katie Dube of Tyngsboro. Photo by the Lowell Sun.

Originally published by the Lowell Sun on July 21st, 2022

By: Melanie Gilbert

LOWELL — Joshua Gonzalez wants to be a high school English teacher. Audrey Djatcha thinks becoming an obstetrician is the career path for her.

The two rising seniors at Lowell High School are applying to college with help from Upward Bound, a federally funded program run through a collaboration between the high school and Middlesex Community College.

The program works with between 50 to 60 students annually, said Colleen Winn, director of TRiO and Gear Up, and is designed to assist low-income, first-generation, college-eligible students to begin and complete a post-secondary education.

“We have four programs. The original outreach is called TRiO and consists of Upward Bound, Upward Bound Math and Science and Talent Search,” Winn explained. “Gear Up was launched in 2000. All four programs work with and encourage students to go to college.”

The TRiO program was part of President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society domestic agenda that was realized through the Higher Education Act, passed in 1965.

MCC recently received an almost $1.5 million TRiO Upward Bound grant from the U.S. Department of Education to continue strengthening the academic skills of high school program participants. Winn says that 100% of the program participants go on to college.

“According to the National Student Clearinghouse data, they have a benchmark every year, and less than 50% of the students with a similar demographic go on to college,” she said. “Lowell High does a great job, and we have a lot of partners like Project Learn, who all work together to prepare our students.”

In addition to the weekly mentoring during the school year that augments their classroom learning, the funding helps underwrite a five-week intensive summer program for participants and features cultural outings, resume building skills, college tours and hands-on learning in a variety of subjects.

That Upward Bound funding is in addition to a seven-year, $2.5 million grant that MCC received in 2019 from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education to continue Gear Up (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) in Lowell middle schools like Pyne Arts, Butler, Daley and Stoklosa.

Djatcha was recruited to Gear Up in middle school, and joined Upward Bound in her freshman year at LHS.

“Upward Bound helped me to discover that I really want to become a doctor,” Djatcha said Wednesday during a break in the summer intensive session held at MCC’s Pollard Building on Middle Street. “I had an internship with Harvard Medical Science. I got to talk with doctors, and people who are working with Harvard Medical students. I learned suturing. And I learned all the pathways required to become a doctor.”

That exposure to professionals working in fields, plus hands-on learning is what makes the program special, said Jennifer Melcher, a Lowell High math and science teacher who spent two decades as a research scientist at Massachusetts Eye and Ear.

She was working in the science room with half a dozen students intently working on circuit boards hooked up to computers.

“When I was hired, Upward Bound said they wanted to bring in as much hands-on STEM as possible. They had money through the grant to do it,” Melcher said. “We brought in real biotech equipment. We have a real polymerase chain reaction and electrophoresis machines (for DNA research). It’s like a dream job to have the support of these folks behind this kind of learning with these incredible kids.”

Like Djatcha, Gonzalez got his start through Gear Up at the Daley Middle School, and found his calling through Upward Bound at the high school.

“I’ve told a few people, ‘like bro, just go for it,’” Gonzalez said outside his College & Career classroom taught by Sajeda Khalifa, of Billerica. “I think, thank God I joined this because I would not have anywhere to go for help with college applications, the financial aid forms and all this other different stuff.”

Gonzalez said he’s looking at Bridgewater State, UMass Amherst and UMass Lowell. “Basically, I’m looking all over Massachusetts,” he said.

Katie Dube, an English teacher from Tyngsboro, teaches creative writing at Lowell High. She has worked with Upward Bound — both in the after-school mentoring and summer programs — for five years.

“I’ve known Josh (Gonzalez) since ninth grade through this program,” Dube said. “This year, we’re working on their college essays. I’ll sit down with my mentees, I can give them individualized attention and really talk to them about their work product.”

Lowell High and Upward Bound alums Drashti Soni, Sabrina Sen and Qingping Diep are working as classroom assistants during the summer intensive.

“I graduated in 2020, and am attending UMass Lowell studying business,” Soni said. “The program helped expose me to new things like robotics, gave me opportunities to visit colleges and helped me with my college essays. I felt prepared for college.”