For Jesse Lopez, the opportunity to partner with Upward Bound, a federally-funded academic program for college-bound students from underfunded communities, was a chance to pay it forward, since Lopez had once participated in the program himself.
“I came from a culturally rich but super broke L.A. community, so Upward Bound introduced me to the idea of attending college and helped me every step of the way in high school to be accepted and attend UC Santa Barbara,” said Lopez, who completed residential summer programs with Upward Bound at Harvey Mudd College and UC Davis throughout his high school years.
Now, the director of student success for the ASU Library, Lopez is working to increase academic support services for one of Arizona State University’s fastest-growing populations: first-generation students, who make up 35% of ASU’s undergraduate and graduate student…
