The Upward Bound program has had a presence at Kent State University for more than 30 years. This year, the students in the Upward Bound Classic program and the Upward Bound PREP Academy brought special recognition to Kent State when they won a bronze award from the 2010 TRiO Quest activities national competition with a video the students wrote and produced.

The video, titled "Summer Not at Upward Bound is a Summer Wasted," competed against more than 100 videos and made it to group of 16 finalists. The judges then picked the winning videos from this group of accomplished young people.

"Winning an award was an additional confirmation to me that what my colleagues and I put in place this year for our Summer Institute was done with a purpose," Bruce Mitchell, assistant director, Upward Bound Classic Pre-College - TRIO Programs, says. "We changed so much, but it was all to better reach our targeted goals and overarching vision."

During the Upward Bound summer institute, 18 students took an electronic media production elective course. During their five weeks at Kent State, the students worked closely with Danielle Wiggins, School of Journalism and Mass Communication adjunct professor, to produce the winning video.

"Our programs have been recognized before, but not at this level," Dana-Lawless Andric, director Pre-College and TRIO Upward Bound Programs, says. "We are so excited to see the relationship with Kent State and the students grow over the years through interaction with faculty during the summer and targeted programming."

Mitchell announced the award on Nov. 6, at an Upward Bound Saturday Academy. These academies occur once a month during the academic year and provide student support activities in several areas that meet the responsibilities of the grant.

Upward Bound is designed to provide academic support to eligible students interested in education beyond high school. Upward Bound Programs at Kent State are a set of federally funded TRiO pre-college initiatives designed to assist target area students who meet program criteria to successfully graduate from high school, prepare for and enter into the college of their choice. TRiO programs help students overcome class, social, academic, and cultural barriers to higher education.

"With this program Kent State is promoting the aspirations of college and building a culture of excellence within each of our students," Lawless-Andric says.

View the award-wining video on YouTube.