{"id":5196,"date":"2012-10-11T14:13:18","date_gmt":"2012-10-11T18:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=5196"},"modified":"2017-06-06T16:56:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-06T20:56:59","slug":"event-university-of-rochesters-kearns-center-celebrates-two-milestones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/event-university-of-rochesters-kearns-center-celebrates-two-milestones\/","title":{"rendered":"EVENT: 做厙勛圖’s Kearns Center Celebrates Two Milestones"},"content":{"rendered":"
This October, the University of Rochester’s David T. Kearns Center for Leadership & Diversity in Arts, Sciences & Engineering will mark the 10th anniversary of its founding and the 20th anniversary of the Ronald E. McNair Post-Baccalaureate Achievement Program, which is housed at the center. The center also celebrates three new grants totaling $3.9 million for its Upward Bound and McNair programs. Two events during the University’s annual alumni gathering, Meliora Weekend (Thursday, Oct. 11 through Sunday, Oct. 14), will recognize the center’s decade of success.<\/p>\n
“The Kearns Center continues its mission of increasing educational opportunities for low-income, first-generation college, and underrepresented minority students across the academic pipeline,” says Beth Olivares, director of the Kearns Center. “We now serve students from elementary school through the doctoral degree.”<\/p>\n
Since its start at the University in 2007, the Upward Bound programs have served 222 high school students with astonishing success. The program’s first four cohorts have a 95 percent graduation rate and 96 percent have been accepted and\/or are currently attending institutions including the University of Rochester, Columbia University, Syracuse University, Spelman College, Howard University, and several local colleges and universities, among others.<\/p>\n
Upward Bound Classic, which serves just over 60 students at Jefferson and East high schools, received $1,312,490, while the Upward Bound Math Science program, which serves the same number of students at Wilson Commencement, Edison, Franklin and Vanguard, and East high schools, received a $1,312,500 grant.<\/p>\n
During the academic year, Upward Bound students engage in a variety of learning activities geared toward preparing them for college application, entry, and retention. Scholars attend programming on campus once a month and receive intensive, weekly one-on-one advising in their high schools. The summer program, which provides the opportunity for student-driven research, runs five days a week for six weeks in July and August on the River Campus.<\/p>\n
The success of the Upward Bound program has spawned several collaborations, including the College Prep Centers on East and Franklin campuses. The University, in partnership with the Rochester City School District, JPMorgan Chase Foundation, and the Max and Marian Farash Charitable Foundation, opened the two centers to assist the schools in establishing a culture of college-going students by providing them direct college prep and advising services.<\/p>\n