Since 1965, the Upward Bound program has been preparing high school students for success in college.

One of the oldest Upward Bound programs in the country is in Kentucky at Morehead State University.

This year, it's turning 60.

And as we learned in today's education matters, the program is showing no signs of slowing down.

Our goal is to help low income, first generation students from this area succeed in high school and beyond, and to receive a four year degree within so long of graduating high school.

So our program works with 20 high schools, so any student in those high schools is welcome to apply.

We base the, acceptance on their income level.

Or their first generation status.

And we accept any student that meets those criteria who has a desire to want to, receive a college education.

Getting ready to go into my senior year is scary, because I don't have anyone in my family to ask questions.

I don't, you know, there's nobody that I can rely on to be like, hey, what's college like?

I have six siblings and I'm one of the only ones going to college.

My parents didn't go to college, so it's like, it's a little nerve wracking, but it's easier to settle in when I know that, like, I have staff and the admin here that I've made connections with over the last three years that I can rely back on.

Our full time staff members go into the schools every month, and we do some kind of educational activity to help them.

This could be planning their future classes.

It could be a financial literacy list, and it could be, a social skill that they may need, such as working with roommates, our seniors during the school year.

We specifically hone in on their, scholarship applications, their college applications.

We help them do scholarship searches.

And we've had a lot of students go to, college with and graduating without any debt.

So our summer program is six weeks.

So we have one week hybrid where the students participate online and they come one day for a, day in the life of their summer program so that they get to meet their R.A.

the other students in their group see their classes such as that.

And then they move in on campus and they're here for four weeks during the summer.

They get to pick their classes.

We give them classes in the morning that will help prepare them for their next school year.

And it's a lot of hands on activities we like to do.

But I think the upper bound is really showed me that college ain't something to be scared of.

It's something to experiment with and, actually kind of excited for college now to be able to change my major if I want to experiment new jobs, see what I like and what fits me.

I came into the program not knowing where I was going to go.

So the freshmen going into your sophomore year, they take you on a little trip.

We went to the University of Louisville.

I had never given a second thought to that university because it's so far away.

But I went and I found out about their program, and they have one of the best law programs in Kentucky, and I've just been dead set on that since.

And then we have one week where we take our students, somewhere, for an educational trip.

And that changes every year based off what the students want to do last summer.

We got an email, and it was like, they're going to have a research trip.

You know, the location.

You don't know the location yet.

And we ended up going to Seattle, Washington.

Upward bound also provides you with a lot of first experiences.

I've never been on a plane so upper bound flying me on that plane into Seattle, and I've never been west either.

So going into Washington was like, wow.

Our students.

They have such wonderful stories and they're all very different.

Even though they're all from Kentucky, they all have different backgrounds and they help each other.

And they just it's it's just it's hard to describe unless you see it in person.

But it is wonderful to see so many students from different areas and Kentucky just get along with one common goal of bettering their futures.

A good program indeed.

The Upward Bound program at Morehead State serves more than 300 high school students.

And 18 eastern Kentucky counties.