Naomi Brown-Jones, director of the Upward Bound program at Brandeis, joined the University in October of 2022 after serving as an academic and transfer counselor at Massachusetts Bay Community College. Having spent her entire career in higher education, Jones has dedicated years to helping underserved populations — from students of color to first generation students — see the purpose of higher education and find a passion for the educational environment.

Jones attributes her purpose in higher education to her own background as a first generation college graduate and Upward Bound alumna. With the support and safe spaces that the Upward Bound community provided her, Jones went on to study sociology at university. Jones values the development that can happen on a college campus, and wishes it for all of her students. 

Upward Bound is part of the federally funded TRIO educational programs. The Brandeis chapter started with only Jones and the grant application. Without any kind of prior infrastructure, she built the program, formed relationships and recruited students. Currently, Upward Bound offers an immersive summer program for rising Waltham high schoolers on the Brandeis campus, tutoring during the academic year, and college preparatory programs among other initiatives. Jones spoke with The Justice on Sept. 12 about these endeavors.

What are the objectives of the program?

“Upward Bound is one of the original TRIO programs. And we’ve been around since the 60s.  Institutions of higher education and community based organizations have the opportunity every five years to apply for Upward Bound funding from the Department of Education. So, in 2021, Brandeis made the decision to apply for that funding and we were awarded.

The overall goal of Upward Bound is to help ensure that students who identify as first-gen and/or low income are able to successfully complete a college education. We will track our students; so we have had 17 students graduate from the program in the last two years and they’ve all gone on to either a four-year or a two-year college or university and we’ll track them up until they graduate.

One of our deliverables is what percentage of your students are actually completing a degree, so the idea is that through Upward Bound programming — which looks like after-school tutoring during the academic year, college visits, different interactive field trips — we do a lot of rewarding academic excellence in our program. I just took a bunch of students who got honor roll at the end of last academic year to a football game at Boston College last Saturday. We do a lot of that during the academic year. 

And then the cornerstone of Upward Bound programming is our summer program. So every Upward Bound project is expected to provide six weeks of summer programming to our students. So we provide a six-week day program here at Brandeis and it’s really supposed to function as a mini college experience because these are students that don’t necessarily have a point of reference when it comes to college that comes from within their own families. [This is true] particularly here in Waltham because a lot of our students that we’re serving come from recently arrived families. A lot of families that have just come in from Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico — they have really no point of reference when it comes to the American education system. Joining Upward Bound really gives them people to talk to, mentors, and a support system to really say, ‘Hey, if you want college, we can help you make this happen.’

What’s really awesome about the summer program is that they’re spending time in our classrooms here on campus at Brandeis. They’re eating in the dining hall, you know, they’re walking around this hilly campus and really getting to, in a scaffolded way, experience what college could be like in their future. 

And it helps them become a more informed consumer. They know what it’s like to study in a library. They know what it’s like to sit in a classroom and really navigate these spaces so that by the time it comes time for their own opportunity to apply and select a college, they know a little bit more about the process after spending summer with us.”

You said that you track and stay in touch with students until graduation. That sounds like a great opportunity to form lasting connections. 

“Oh, a hundred percent. Stylistically, something I really value is this notion of community and something I’ve tried to integrate a lot into how we’ve built this program is — not feeling alone.

I think as a first-gen student, very often you don’t want anyone to know you’re the first, you want to hide it, and it’s really hard to ask for help. But I encourage my students to see themselves in one another. To realize you’re not alone. You’re not the only person feeling this way. And if we can all feel this together and talk about it, maybe we can lessen the stress for one another.

So it’s been very beautiful to see the way the kids have connected because it’s not like I’m necessarily just recruiting students from the same friend group or same social group. We have Waltham High School students that have only ever interacted with one another as part of Upward Bound activities. They’re meeting one another, they’re engaging, and they’re building a community that’s very unique and separate from what they’re doing at the high school. It’s been very nice to see the relationships that have developed amongst our students, and I’m just very proud of the community that we’ve created.”

Can you describe the kinds of programming Upward Bound offers during the academic year? 

“So we run two 10-week semesters, one in the fall and one in the spring. This semester we have an orientation on the 25th of September, and then the plan is to start tutoring that following Monday. We’re after school in the library at Waltham High School four days a week and we provide about an hour to two hours of after school homework help drop-in services. The goal behind that is just to create a culture of academic excellence with the students. 

We also have a lot of engagement around prepping for the SAT. We ran an SAT prep course last spring. Another really cool conversation that’s happened around course selection. I had a lot of first year college students; they just graduated from high school, just finished taking APs. So when it came time for course selection at the high school, they were able to share firsthand knowledge like, ‘no, this AP is easier than that one.’

We’ll also host events at the high school during the academic year. Last fall, we celebrated National First-Gen Day at the high school and had a student panel with Brandeis undergrads that identify as first-gen sharing their experiences. And, we’ll take other fun field trips. Last February, we went to our regional TRIO conference which is held every February for the students that participate in the programs. And then [we do] a lot of supporting our college bound seniors at the end of the year. We do a senior cruise, we give awards, and we really try to celebrate the fact that our students are college bound.

So this past senior class, we had 14 students graduate, 11 are all at four-year institutions currently, and then three are at two-year institutions. So we have a hundred percent college going rate thus far.”

How was the most recent run of the summer program?

“We start the last week of June and we go until the first week of August. The students are on campus from Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. It’s a full time job. We come in, we have breakfast, and they do three academic classes. And we try to vary the kinds of academic courses that they’re exposed to. The great thing about our academic courses is they’re not graded, so students can come in and they can take hands-on science classes. They can take college-based writing courses. We try to give them as many creative hands-on academic options in the summertime that are different from what they’re seeing at the high school.

And then the afternoon is when we’re doing most of our leadership and mentorship work. So, our [undergraduates] that worked for us as tutor-mentors in the summer ran workshops for the students. We did a lot of drop-in activities. They did candle-making one day, tie-dye another — activities that are meant to mirror kind of extracurricular activities on a college campus. Giving them an element of choice so that they can move around to different areas of the campus. 

And then every Friday we end with a field trip. We’d do different activities as a whole group. The first Friday we were at Hale Reservation doing ropes courses. Then the second week we ended on Wednesday because of the 4th of July holiday. We went out to Spectacle Island in Boston Harbor and got to spend the day on the island doing different activities. Our third week we went to downtown Boston, got to explore the State House and the Wayne Theater. So different field trips that kind of keep the kids engaged and excited to keep coming to us. And then we end every summer going to Six Flags because they’re still kids. 

The night before we go to Six Flags we have our project showcase. All of our courses are project-based and they all end in a culminating project. So students are able to show their work off to their parents and different community members to see what they’ve been working on for the past six weeks. 

So it’s a full-fledged semester almost in terms of work and what the kids are producing but it really is just a labor of love. I really enjoy the summertime. The students are here with us. We’re supporting them all day. And it is exhausting, but it’s really fun to see their growth over such a short period of time.”

What future plans are in store for Upward Bound?

“Upward Bound funding is five years at a time and we will be rewriting our grant application next year. And I definitely think it’s worth it to write to serve more students. Upping our numbers anywhere to 72 or 80 students that we’re serving — that’ll increase the dollar amount that we’re funded at. I think that’s definitely a move for the next iteration of the grant. 

And then the other thing is thinking about, you know, spreading out to other communities. I don’t know that that’s something I’m necessarily comfortable with right now.  We’re unique in the fact that we only serve one high school. A lot of other programs will spread out and serve multiple high schools.

We’re not there yet because I think there’s definitely a value to being based in Waltham in one high school. We have a very strong relationship with staff at the high school so I think that’s my only hesitation in terms of spreading out the impact of the program. So yeah, definitely being able to increase the amount of students that we can impact just in number and not necessarily in community or different high schools.”

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

“I think if you’re passionate about education and you want an opportunity to start a career in education, Upward Bound is a great model because you can teach for us, you can mentor for us. There’s a lot of different ways to get involved with our students. 

My career personally started as an Upward Bound student. This was the starting point for me and I see it as very valuable because it made me look at my work in higher education not solely as a career but also as meaningful community-based work. I change lives and that matters more than the dollar amount I’m getting paid every week.”

In her role as director, Jones is dedicated to supporting first generation and low-income students in their academics and in their educational experiences as a whole. Upward Bound plants the roots of long-term connections among peers as well as between mentors and students.