Upward Bound Case Study

1. Why are you interested in working with UMass Upward Bound?
I am interested to work with Upward Bound program because I want to gain knowledge and experience about mentoring students from less privileged background and subordinate social identity. This work experience will facilitate insights and hands-on experience to mentor and train high-school students to pursue higher education. Personally, I am a first-generation, poor class, and belong to lower caste social group in India; therefore, I understand the struggle of these students to reach to higher education and succeed. I have been associated with youth mentoring program in India and my one of the career goals is to support underprivileged student groups to join college education. Moreover, I am pursuing my doctoral program in Education and my focus of the research is subordinate student identity in higher education, which will broaden my
What roles do you think race and class play in terms of access to higher education in the U.S.?
I strongly believe that race and class both plays a significant role to access higher education in the United States. The dominant Neoliberal ideology prophases that work hard and anyone can get to the top; however, it is a false promise for the most of the people of color and poor class. After fifty years of the Civil Rights act, the people of color are lagging in development indicators such as economic, educational, and political representation at every levels. Several studies have established that schools in the areas of people of color and the poor class are getting lower funding and the quality of education is low. This indicates that students from these neighborhoods have lesser chances to join higher education compared to their counterparts, white and affluent students. Due to historical oppression and existing marginalization many students of color do not get higher cultural capital from their families, which further reduces their chances to join college