Thanks to a federal grant, high school students in Knox County will get help preparing for college. TRIO Upward Bound, a program at Carl Sandburg College, will receive $1.3 million over the next five years.
Director, Tony Bentley, says the program started 18 years ago. It's for low income students whose parents haven't earned college degrees. He and two other employees work with 65 students from the four high schools in Knox County during the school year.
And for six weeks in the summer, TRIO Upward Bound students must attend classes. This summer, they're learning taking classes in robotics, forensics, composition, literature, German, and math. The Department of Education funds also pay for college visits and field trips.
This spring, Bentley says all the seniors who participated in the Sandburg Upward Bound program graduated from Abingdon Avon, Galesburg, Knoxville, and ROWVA high schools.
