News and Releases

News Releases

Naugatuck Valley Community College Upward Bound Students Make a Difference in Our Community

August 11, 2021

NVCC’s TRIO Upward Bound (UB) summer program for students from Wilby, Crosby, and Kennedy High Schools is an engaging, six-week hybrid summer program serving 45 students in grades 9-12. As part of the NVCC TRiO Upward Bound Summer Program, students partnered with the United Way of Greater Waterbury’s Upstarters Program to develop, design, and implement community projects as their capstone experience. Two of the projects involved collecting household and hospitality supplies to benefit local service organizations and NVCC’s Student Food Pantry.

Students enrolled in the NVCC Upward Bound Summer Program held their donation event on Friday, July 30 at the campus bus stop, where they collected donations that included healthy grocery items that were then delivered directly to the organizations.

Karima Jackson, site coordinator, shared, “The students really worked hard on their projects that supported the NVCC Student Food Pantry and the Hospitality Center of Waterbury. They earned 15 community service hours and despite the challenges of COVID – they really came through!”

Tim Magee, Director of the Upward Bound program and Interim Associate Dean of Academic Affairs at NVCC, commented on the successful implementation of the drives and how the service-learning projects build confidence for the students and make a difference in the community.

As the capstone project for the summer program, the community projects were presented at the Upward Bound Last Day Presentation on Friday, August 6. Members of United Way of Greater Danbury participated in this celebration in which students received awards and certificates that recognized their projects, perfect attendance, and positive student evaluations.

Brendan Buzack, student mentor, commented on the project and the lessons that students learned: “The kids learned valuable lessons by working together as a team. Now they have the skills to coordinate even bigger events.”

Another student mentor, Synovia Gorbea, reflected on the generous spirit that inspired the project: “Despite the challenges that many of our students face, they came together and wanted to help the community by organizing the food drive.”

Upward Bound (UB) is a highly successful college-based program of rigorous academic instruction, individual tutoring, and counseling for low-income, disadvantaged high school students, many of whom will be first generation college students. Funded through the Federal TRiO grant, the program is designed to engage students in an intensive academic study program with an emphasis on English, mathematics, science, and foreign languages.