The University of Hawaii at Hilo’s Upward Bound program was awarded four new five-year grants totaling nearly $6 million to help high school students prepare for college.
“The program helps students from low-income and/or first-generation families prepare for the college-going process,” said Shayna Fuerte, interim director of the UH-Hilo UB program. “Many of these students who come from low-income families typically do not have access to opportunities provided by the program, such as attending college tours and the experience of residing on a college campus.”
Other year-round services offered to UB students include academic tutoring, motivational workshops and a six-week summer program, among other services.
Roughly 65% of the graduating seniors from UH-Hilo’s UB program enroll in college the fall semester following graduation. That is higher than the typical 43% of graduates who attend during the same time frame, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Through grant funding, the program is able to provide a student to counselor ratio of 60-to-1,” Fuerte added, narrowing down the 250-to-1 ratio recommended by the American Counseling Association. “This allows for more individualized services tailored to meeting the needs of each student.”
The four new grants were provided by the U.S. Department of Education.
“All of these services provided to program participants are completely free of charge due to the grant funding,” said Fuerte, adding the DOE identified points of focus for this year’s grants, including academic tutoring, test preparation, financial aid assistance and a six-week summer college residential experience, which returned in person this year for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year’s UB grants include $1,488,005 for the East Program, targeting Keaau High School and Pahoa High &Intermediate School; $1,488,005 for the Urban Program, targeting Hilo High School and Waiakea High School; $1,488,000 for the North Program, targeting Honokaa High &Intermediate School and Kohala High School; and $1,488,005 for the West program, targeting Kealakehe High School and Konawaena High School.
Ka‘u High School was omitted from the targeted schools this year, a deviation from previous years.
“Ka‘u was not listed as a target school in the grant application,” Fuerte said. “However, Ka‘u is included in the target area that the program serves. Students attending any public high school on the Big Island, including Ka‘u High School, are eligible to apply for participation in the program and receive services.”
No mention of Ka‘u concerned program alumni Kurt De La Cruz, who previously served as assistant director of the UH-Hilo UB program.
“Ten percent of your overall participant numbers can come from schools within the target area, but do not attend one of the targeted schools funded in the proposal,” De La Cruz said. “Although this represents kind of a ‘backdoor’ way to have a student participate in UB from a nontargeted school, it is by far not the same as being a participant from a target school and having coordinated, targeted initiatives for students of that school.”
De La Cruz added there currently are no Ka‘u students enrolled in the UB program despite this 10% stipulation, and is hopeful the school will be prioritized in the future.
“My latest discussions with administrators at UH-Hilo gives me hope that Ka‘u will be prioritized in future grant cycles,” he said. “Ka‘u is a vast district made up of several distinct communities. To learn that there has been no participants from Ka‘u has been troubling for me.”
New students are admitted into the UB program throughout the academic year and must be graduated eighth-graders, high school freshmen, sophomores, or first-semester juniors. Students must also be either low-income according to federal government guidelines, or have parents who have not earned a recognized bachelor’s degree.
Email Grant Phillips at gphillips@hawaiitribune-herald.com