Upward Bound provides academic advising, after-school tutoring & mentoring, monthly Saturday sessions, college visits, and a summer residential program. Established in 2007, the UC Merced CEP’s Upward Bound Program is based on developing and implementing a solution to the low rate of students entering post-secondary institutions. The Upward Bound Program’s primary purpose is to assist students in the Hoover, McLane, and Sunnyside High Schools with the necessary preparation required to be competitive in post-secondary educational institutions. These schools are extremely disadvantaged compared to other sites in the Central San Joaquin Valley, with extreme poverty rates, a high number of English Language Learners, and low high school graduation and transfer to college rates.

Since 2007, the Upward Bound Program has 327 served students from the Hoover and Sunnyside High Schools in Fresno, with a 52% A-G completion and 74.67% postsecondary enrollment. The Upward Bound Program currently serves 72 first-generation, low-income students.