Microsoft Contributes Software to Upward Bound
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 14, 1999
Kathleen McPartland
530-898-4260
David Ferguson, Upward Bound
530-898-5181
Microsoft Contributes Software to Upward Bound
CSU, Chico’s Upward Bound program for high school students has received a donation of Microsoft Office 2000 Premium, valued at $250,087, from Microsoft Corporation. Upward Bound shares the gift with Colusa, Hamilton Union, Oroville, and Paradise high schools, and the College of Communication and Education at CSU, Chico.
The contribution continues a partnership Upward Bound has formed with Microsoft in which they provide software for use in the Upward Bound and Teacher Diversity Program computer lab.
The Upward Bound Project prepares low-income students and students who would be first-generation college students for success in college. The access to Microsoft’s up-to-date and comprehensive software provides a rare educational opportunity for these students.
Microsoft Office 2000 Premium includes the nine most utilized applications for school and business. It includes word processing, database, spreadsheet, multimedia presentation, desktop publishing, Web page design, e-mail, and small business tools.
David Ferguson, director of the Upward Bound project, said, “We are fortunate to partner with Microsoft. Upward Bound participants are definitely more technologically prepared than they were five years ago before the partnership. They can design Web sites, give media-aided presentations, create databases, and they create some amazing artwork.”
Over the last five years, the high school graduation rate of Chico’s Upward Bound participants has been 100 percent, compared to 67 percent of all high school students. In addition, all Upward Bound graduates advance to college, compared to 57 percent of all other high school graduates in California.
Upward Bound, originally enacted under the 1964 Economic Opportunities Act, is one of the oldest programs in the country and the longest running grant-funded program on the campus. It was first funded at Chico in 1965 and has served thousands of students since then.
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