Castleton University Upward Bound students from seven local high schools, including Fair Haven, Mill River, Poultney, Rutland and West Rutland, recently worked together with the Service House and Sustainability Clubs for a spring clean up effort on campus, as well as in the Castleton, Fair Haven and West Rutland communities.
On campus, students picked up trash from walkways, parking lots and gardens in preparation for Castleton’s Commencement ceremony. Within the community, the group led clean up efforts at Crystal Beach, and various other local parks and gardens.
Upward Bound student Patrick Cote-Able led the garbage pick-up on campus, while Laurie Provin, Zijie Wan, Ranran Ren and Yao Qintang led the garden efforts, and Nathan Bushweller, Jillian Tatro, Katherine DiGuardia and Sam Lafontaine organized clean ups offsite.
Upward Bound is a federally funded TRiO program at Castleton that offers challenging pre-college experiences to students of high school academic ability from Fair Haven Union High School, Mill River Union High School, Poultney High School, Rutland High School and West Rutland High School. The goal of the program is to generate the skills and motivation necessary for success in high school and college through a six-week semester residential program and an academic year component.
ABOUT THE CASTLETON UPWARD BOUND PROGRAM
Castleton Upward Bound, established in 2003, has served more than 200 local high school students. Since its inception 75 percent of Castleton Upward Bound students have enrolled in college immediately following high school graduation, compared to just 35 percent of low-income Vermont high school graduates.
For more information on the Castleton Upward Bound program, please contact the Director of Upward Bound, Jennifer Jones at (802) 468-6400 or via email at Jennifer.jones@castleton.edu.