Isabel Bond Opens College Doors for Thousands of First-Generation NW Students
Tuesday, July 10 2001
July 10, 2001^MOSCOW – Isabel E. Bond, who has directed Upward Bound and similar college-preparation programs for 22 years at the University of Idaho, has had a hand in the educational successes of thousands of Northwest Native Americans, children of miners and persons with disabilities.^“Once you make it into one of her programs,” says Robert Seward, an Upward Bound assistant, “you are her ‘kid’ for life. Even if you come back 15 years after you graduate from high school and say, ‘I’m maybe thinking it's time for college,’ Isabel is quick to say, ‘Okay. Let’s get your applications going. She never forgets you.’” ^Seward would know. An Upward Bound student from Wallace who admits he did not excel in high school, went on, with the help of Upward Bound and Bond, to complete a degree in German at the UI.^Honored at UI's May commencement with a President’s Medallion for people who have made “significant contributions to the cultural, economic, scientific and/or social advancement of Idaho and it’s people,” Bond is thrilled, mainly because “it shows the university’s growing commitment to diversity,” she says.^Her office on the ground floor of the College of Education is a beehive of action, with one entire wing filled with coordinators managing programs for which Isabel wrote successful grants. Originating with the 1965 Higher Education Act and the administration’s War on Poverty, Upward Bound was followed by five additional programs. All assist low-income, first-generation college students or those with disabilities to progress from middle school to post-baccalaureate programs. ^Bond's own office is filled with photographs of successes. There’s nothing she’d rather discuss than her graduates who now are tribal leaders, teachers, lawyers and other professionals.^She estimates some 2,000 students have benefited from UI Upward Bound programs during her tenure, and she speculates they have touched “nearly every family and individual,” on the Coeur d’Alene and Nez Perce Indian reservations -- prime targets for her programs.^Most of the programs involve six weeks of summer residence on the UI campus. Beginning at age 14, students may come back every year to strengthen their academic skills, take workshops in resume writing and various professional careers. Here, too, they network with other students and with faculty, camp out, join river trips, and generally build their confidence that college is within their reach. ^Bond doesn’t consider a college degree the only sign of success. “Often students will succeed in completing a two-year degree, and then their children will make it through the next hurdle, the full college education.” ^She also distributes hundreds of books each year to the two Idaho reservations. “One survey we did found that some families don’t subscribe to newspapers. So it is part of my goal to make sure every family, every group on the reservation has reading materials, good magazines, books, textbooks.” She delights in a recent quote from Spokane Indian author Sherman Alexi that he became a writer because “there was nothing to do on the reservations but read.” ^Upward Bound attracted 63 students to campus this summer from the Nez Perce and Coeur d’Alene Indian reservations and from the Coeur d’Alene mining district. Upward Bound Math and Science drew 50 students from Idaho, Oregon, Alaska and Washington. Educational Talent Search, a school-year program, helps some 650 students in the Lewiston-Clarkston and Coeur d’Alene areas prepare for college. HOIST (Helping Orient Indian Students and Teachers to Math and Science), is a uniquely Idaho-funded program that provides summer academic support similar to Upward Bound, plus opportunities to intern with scientists.^Bond also wrote the successful $85,000 Northwest Nations grant that funds Upward Bound programs for students from seven additional reservations in Idaho, Oregon, Washington and Nevada. ^The Moscow resident is mother to four college graduates of her own. Her father was a Presbyterian minister who helped train ministers who served the reservations, and Bond's family has had a three-generation link to the Nez Perce Reservation.^“My work with the programs has been a great joy, enriching my life in so many ways,” adds Bond. “I am so fortunate.”^Many of her students might say the same. ^Media Contacts: Mary Ann Reese, UI College of Education, (208) 885-2841, mreese@uidaho.edu. Isabel Bond, Director of UI TRIO programs, (208) 885-6206, ibond@uidaho.edu^^Editors: Isabel Bond, recipient of a UI President's Medallion in May for her 32-year career at UI, directs Upward Bound and other college-preparation programs for Native Americans. This profile is a sidebar to the release and tipsheet sent yesterday, which can be found at www.its.uidaho.edu/today/view_releases.asp^Photo of Bond is available upon request.^-30-^mar 7/10/01 EDU^^
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