• Mission Statement

To provide academic services, educational and cultural enrichment activities to program participants to motivate them to complete high school, facilitate their admissions to college and significantly increase their chances of earning a college degree.

• Goal

The goal of the Upward Bound Program is to help students overcome environmental, social, cultural and academic barriers to higher education. Upward Bound Programs do this by providing high school students with information , counseling, academic instruction, tutoring, assistance with college admissions and financial aid, motivation and guidance to ensure that they successfully graduate from high school and college. Each year more than 50,000 students participate in over 500 Upward Bound Programs nationwide, including Puerto Rico.

• History of the Upward Bound Program

In the late 1960’s Upward Bound was established as one of the initiatives of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s “War on Poverty” campaign. The central idea of the program was to link institutions of Higher Education with target schools in an effort to expose students, who have been defined as low income and first generation potential college students, to postsecondary education. This translated well into a variety of settings from Bronx to Appalachia. Upward Bound is sponsored by the United States Department of Education and is the oldest and most successful federal TRIO Program.

• Upward Bound Program at Florida Memorial University

Florida Memorial University’s Upward Bound Program is designed to assist students with academic potential who need additional academic support and motivation to succeed
in high school and later, in college. We provide an on-going program of academic and counseling activities. Students may participate in the program from the time they are enrolled until the graduate from high school.

Funded by the United States Department of Education Federal TRIO Program and
Sponsored by Florida Memorial University, Upward Bound was first initiated at Florida Memorial University in 1985. The program lost it’s funding in 1989 and was recently funded in 2007 to provide access and opportunity to low-income, first generation students in Miami-Dade County. The Program is funded to serve 65 students in Miami-Dade County.