Imagine: it’s May 2014 and I am a high school junior who is wide-eyed, bushy-tailed and eagerly anticipating the college admissions process.
My mother drops me off in Chapel Hill for some two-day program that my counselor signed me up for. I didn’t know what to expect at the time but this program, Project Uplift, would be formative during my college selection process and it continues to impact my experience as a college student.
Project Uplift, hosted by UNC Admissions and Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, is a program that aims to increase college readiness and awareness for rising high school seniors from underrepresented backgrounds.
As a first generation student from a rural high school, I had very little to no college preparation or concrete opportunities to learn about college. I had never been on a college campus and only knew surface-level stereotypes and myths about the application process.
Through academic sessions and financial aid sessions, I began to understand the steps I would have to take to be admitted to a school like UNC. However, I learned just as much from the PU counselors.
Meeting and interacting with so many high-achieving minority students was refreshing because I was concerned about attending a predominately white institution. At that point in my high school career, I had mainly done research on Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
Attending PU allowed me to not only learn about what it takes to be admitted to and succeed at a top college like UNC, but I also learned what I really wanted from my college experience.
Experiencing the warm, welcoming atmosphere at PU, I realized that I needed that kind of environment in college.
This summer I have had the opportunity to serve as a counselor for Project Uplift, and I get to answer the very questions I asked two years ago. Being able to give back through PU has been a major highlight of my Carolina experience so far. It is both interesting and powerful to understand programs like Project Uplift from two different viewpoints.
