IUPUI Upward Bound offered several exciting opportunities to students during the 2017 spring semester. At the start of the semester, we introduced an opportunity for our students to volunteer for MLK Day of Service. About 20 students volunteered with St. Vincent de Paul, moving hotel beds from the rooms into trucks to take to their distribution center where they provide everything from clothing to household goods and furniture to hundreds of people in need. Can you imagine going home at night and sleeping on the floor because you do not own a bed? Can you imagine how not having something so easily taken for granted can have a huge impact on someone's life? Moving those heavy beds may have tired us out, but the gratification from doing something good for those who may be less fortunate was a great feeling. Our students left feeling inspired to give back to their community and to help those who could use a helping hand.
We offered several cultural activities as well this past semester, exposing our students to new experiences and an appreciation for the arts. One of the offered activities was a cultural dinner to MA MA'S Korean Restaurant. We also offered an underclassman and a senior etiquette dinner in which our students learned the proper rules and professional guidelines that should be followed at a business dinner. We attended two Indiana Repertory Theatre plays, The Cay and Stuart Little; the Young Musicians Contest; Ballet Hispanico; Motown: The Musical; the movie Hidden Figures; and the presentation "Women of Science."
