It was a dark day in the office of the University of Maine at Presque Isle Upward Bound program when the staff learned that the U.S. Department of Education would not read its grant applications for five years worth of funding because they contained two charts that were not properly spaced.
But if there is a silver lining in the midst of adversity, it is the flood of support for Upward Bound unleashed by the news that the applications were removed from consideration because of the formatting error — support that may have broad impact.
A letter from all four members of Maine’s congressional delegation to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, urging her to allow the applications to be read and scored, began a wave of letters from hundreds of friends and alums of the program, attesting to the life-changing effects of its college-preparatory services for high school students from low-income families.
With programs at both UMPI and the University of Maine at Fort Kent, Upward Bound provides high school students who have college potential but limited resources with year-round programs to prepare them academically and help them navigate the process of applying, and obtaining financial aid, for college. The program has served more than 2,000 county students since 1980, and currently serves 129 students each year.
Seeking annual funding of more than $600,000, the northern Maine applications were among more than 40 across the nation disqualified from the pool of more than 1,600.
“We received more than 1,800 letters in a week,” said Salvadore Portera Jr. of Bangor, a 2007-10 participant in the UMPI program, who coordinated the letter-writing campaign. Now a community organizer for the Maine People’s Alliance, Portera traveled to Presque Isle April 25 to mail the first 1,200 letters at a press conference at the local post office.
The County is pleased to feature content from our sister company, Bangor Daily News. To read the rest of “‘Upward Bound was my lighthouse’: Program alums flood UMPI with letters of support,” an article by contributing Bangor Daily News writer Kathryn Olmstead, please follow this link to the BDN online.
