Northern State University Upward Bound

Summer Program Summary ISSUE 1 August 2013

2013 Upward Bound Summer Program Summary

The entire 2013 NSU Upward Bound Summer Program student group poses after the annual etiquette dinner

Hello and welcome back to another school year. Before the school year starts, we wanted to give our target schools a quick summary of the 2013 Upward Bound Summer Program here at Northern State University. Enclosed in this package are the summer transcripts for the students from your school who attended the summer program and an article on the NSU Upward Bound Program which ran in the June 12th edition of the Aberdeen American News. Most of our target schools offer credit to their students for participating in the summer Upward Bound program, such as one-half credit for attending all six weeks, a one-fourth credit for attending four weeks, or an eighth of a credit for attending for two weeks. Feel free to let us know if you have any questions concerning credit for students. This summer, forty-four students attended the six week summer program from our nine target schools: Aberdeen, Britton-Hecla, Doland, Frederick Area, Langford Area, Sisseton, Waubay, Webster, and Wilmot. The roster was made up of 5 freshmen, 15 sophomores, 18 juniors, and 6 seniors. This summer, five graduated high school seniors took part in the Upward Bound Bridge Program. They were able to get a jump start on college by taking one or two classes at NSU and living in McArthur-Welsh Hall with the other Upward Bound students. In total, the Bridge students completed 23 credits this summer, ranging from 3 to 5 credits per student. For 20 of the Upward Bound students, it was their first time ever attending the summer program. In addition to meeting so many new people and learning to live away from home, our students attended 5 classes each day, participated in planned nightly activities, and went on 2 weekend trips to 4 different colleges and universities in Minnesota and North Dakota. Classes: This summer, we had three new teachers join our summer instruction staff in addition to the three longtime returning teachers that came back for another summer program. Brad Christenson (math), Steve Gough (Spanish), and Brandi Swalve (reading) were our returning instructors. Jennifer Lofswold (writing), John Stoebner (physical science), and Dr. George Nora (chemistry) did a great job in their first summer program on staff. The students also had a supervised study hall each afternoon during

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which we brought in speakers about financial literacy and college preparation. After classes each day, we had activities class, where the students were able to get their blood pumping and mix it up after sitting most of the day. Our summer program classes are designed to give more active and hands on opportunities for the students rather than incorporating traditional lecture-testing situations. That said, they are also very rigorous, so the students had to remain focused and attentive in order to stay current in the classes. In addition to the instructor, we also have 2-3 of our summer tutor/resident supervisors in each class to NSU UB Students at the Mississippi River head waters in Itasca State Park help with classroom management and work with the students that need help. In math, the students completed several packets starting at the level of math that they left off the previous school year and then worked beyond that. The focus of Spanish class this summer was learning and understanding introductory to intermediate Spanish language. Senor G did this through daily oral and written class interactions, daily assignments, projects, and quizzes. This summer, we split what was formerly the English class in past summers into two separate classes, reading and writing, in order to give our students a greater opportunity to better master their knowledge of the English language and increase their chances of attaining a higher score on college entrance examinations such as the ACT test. In reading, Mrs. Swalve led the students in reading, discussing, and dissecting the themes and motivations for all the characters in Chris Crutchers young adult fiction novel, Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes. In addition to the book, Mrs. Swalve also had daily article reading assignments that students had to summarize and discuss. For writing class, Mrs. Lofswold broke the class into week-long themes that included learning how to write and structure summary/responses to articles, a poetry unit which included an interactive video project, and learning to write movie reviews. The students also did daily work on common sentence-level writing issues like fragments, run-ons, word choice, and comma usage. In science, the students worked with two teachers. During the first week of classes, Mr. Stoebner taught our students a week of physical science with an emphasis on physics. For the rest of the summer program, Dr. Nora gave the students a glimpse at what a college chemistry class might be like but also had fun by leading them in lab experiments.

Katie, Cora, Jamez, JoMarie, and Allison at the annual NSU UB Etiquette Dinner

Upward Bound Staff Directory

Rocky Burkett
Director
roscoe.burkett@northern.edu 605-626-3299 nsuupwardbound@northern.edu

Phil Coghlan
Academic Coordinator
phillip.coghlan@northern.edu 605-626-3229

Raven and Emily at the Maritime Museum, Duluth, MN

TJ, Calleigh, Sami, and Matt volunteering for Kids Against Hunger

Trips and Activities: In addition to the summer classes, the students went on five official college tours complete with admissions and financial aid presentations. The schools we visited were Minnesota State University-Moorhead, Northern State University, University of Minnesota-Duluth, University of North Dakota, and University of Wisconsin-Superior. In addition to school visits, we also took the students on several other cultural activities throughout the summer (museums, state parks, etc.). Back in Aberdeen, our students completed a service learning project at the local Kids Against Hunger thrift store in which they completed three weeks-worth of volunteer hours cleaning, organizing and displaying inventory items. Since we were unable to offer an art class this summer due to budgetary restrictions, we were lucky enough to be able to bring in a local Aberdeen group called The Fallout Creative Community for an afternoon. The Fallouts mission is to teach students about mental and physical disabilities through art, music and performance done by individuals with those disabilities. While we try to make the summer program fun, educational, and interactive, it is chiefly designed to be academically challenging in order to give them the best college-like experience possible. 2013 NSU Upward Bound Summer Program by the numbers:

Overall grade averages: math (98%), science (84.4%), writing (84.7%), reading (98.3%), Spanish (92.6%), overall average summer program GPA (3.75) Average number of class days attended by Upward Bound students (out of 22): 20 Percent of Upward Bound students that missed three days or less throughout the summer program: 73% Average (total for summer program) number of class hours attended: 99 Total class days attended by the Upward Bound Students who attended the 2013 Summer Program: 868
UB Students having a blast doing wacky team relays

Total number of class hours attended by the Upward Bound Students: 4,340

Finally, we would like to offer a special thanks to the counselors, administrators, and other school staff who assist in making the Upward Bound program a positive influence on our students lives. Without your assistance, the program would not work. Thank you very much, and we look forward to working with you this school year.