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Cossatot Community College |
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Cossatot Community College |
DE QUEEN – Kay Cobb, Dean of Student Services and Director of TRIO Programs at Cossatot Community College of the University of Arkansas, has announced that the College has been notified by the office of Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) that the College’s Upward Bound program grant has been renewed for the next four years. The amount of the grant is $234,624 per year, or nearly $1 million for the four-year period.
“Needless to say, we are very pleased that our grant was renewed,” said Cobb. “Upward Bound is a program designed to help high school students from low-income families prepare themselves for a college education. We have a demonstrated need for this program in our service area, and are pleased that the federal government saw fit to give us an additional opportunity to serve prospective students.”
Cobb continued, “We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from our students’ parents about the improvement they’ve seen in grades and study habits.” She also cited high parental involvement as one of the keys to success in the program. “We’re very pleased with the progress we’ve made this year in giving first-generation students some exposure to this high-quality program. They’ve got a real shot at attending college, which is something they might not have even considered a year ago.”
Upward Bound is a pre-collegiate program funded by the U.S. Department of Education under the TRIO umbrella of student assistance programs. It is designed to aid low-income area 9th-12th graders who will be the first in their family’s history to attend college. Any child in the 9th or 10th grade, or his/her parent can contact their high school counselor or call Sylvia Watson-Baker at 800-844-4471 Extension 177 for more information about participation in the Upward Bound program.
The Upward Bound program at CCCUA is in its fourth year, serving high schools in Ashdown, Dierks, Foreman, Horatio, Lockesburg, De Queen, Mineral Springs, Nashville, and Umpire. Currently, 65 students are enrolled and participating in the program. There are seats for up to 70 students, and there is a waiting list for students wanting to join the program.
Cossatot Community College offers both technical certification and Associate’s degrees in a wide range of fields on its campus at De Queen, at extension sites at Nashville and Ashdown, and at cccua.edu. It has an enrollment of more than 1,000 students, and is accredited by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools’ Commission on Higher Learning.