On the slightly gloomy morning of June 6th, Upward Bound stu-dents boarded the school bus to be greeted by a familiar face: Aunty Blanche, the bus driver who has been driving Upward Bounders for the past three summers. After the initial hellos, good mornings, and roll call, the bus headed to Hono-lulu for the first field trip of the summer. Aunty Blanche dropped the students at Hawai’i Pacific University’s downtown campus at Fort Street mall. Students were greeted by a tour guide, and led to a classroom for a presentation by an admissions officer. UBers then were split into two groups and led throughout the campus. Students saw the admis-sions office, the computer labs, various classrooms, and other student resources.

Students and staff boarded the golden chariot again and journeyed to HPU’s Hawaii Loa campus in Kaneohe for a continued tour of

the theatre, the lab classrooms, and the student hubs. Students also saw one of the nursing classrooms, and equipped with state-of-the-art “liv-ing mannequins”, which aid future nurses in reducing patient anxiety through hands-on experience. After an invigorating lunch of Subway sandwiches, UBers then went to the Hakipu`u Lo`i. After students chanted the `oli written for the Upward Bound program last summer, Calvin Ho and his staff chanted in response and spoke about the lo’i and the adjoining charter school. Broken into three

groups, students rotated through three stations: working in the lo’i, starting new seedlings, and learning about native plants with Uncle Cal. Students dug up weeds in the lo’i, planted new kalo, and trudged through the mud. Some students even started wrestling in the mud af-ter the kalo was planted! After a quick wash-up in the nearby stream (Yes! I swam in the river. It was delightful; and the water: crystal clear, I’m happy to inform you.), the tired and wet upward Bound Students headed home.

Field Trip of the Week: UB goes from campus to lo‘i

by: Lahela Maxwell

Upward Bound (UB) at WCC kicked off its first week with celestial proportions of excitement. Be-tween college visits and field trips, students met their new classmates, as well as bonded with their RAs within their huis. Additionally, UB-ers were intro-duced to their respective professors in SAT prep, Geometry, Calculus, Speech, Reading, Written Ex-pression, Geology, Hawaiian, and Biology. Tuesday, June 05, 2012 was marked by the very rare astronomical occurrence of Venus’s transit across the sun. UBers witnessed the event in action through a reflected image from a solarscope at the Lanihuli Observatory on campus. The group also saw a live cam feed of the transit from the W.M. Keck telescope from the Big Island. Venus’s transit across the sun happens in pairs about 8 years apart every 105 years, with the last transit happening in 2004. Next time this astronomical phenomenon will be in 2117.

View of Venus making its way accross the sun from the W.M. Keck telescope on the Big Island.

UB-ers witness rare planet transit

Letter from the Adviser: INDEPENDENCE is the theme for the summer! As children become teens there is a noticeable dis-connect that occurs along with their budding freedom. Between building friends, driving lessons, taking college courses, SAT prep and living in residence halls, summer is chock-full of things to keep them busy. It’s not that it’s deliberate it’s just a part of the journey called growing up.

Along with this newly gained independence also comes (for me) the best part: freedom of expression. Amongst these pages is the accumulation of highlights from the program as well as the student’s thoughts on topics they find relevant.

As an adviser, I hope to nurture each student’s creativity and build their confidence not only in writing, but also in their ability to engage themselves within the program. Which hopefully someday will transcend to their communities as well.

This year our wonderfully talented (and oh so quirky) staff at UB Weekly aim to bridge the gap and give you insight to the many happenings within the program. This summer will be also be the inaugural launch of our video channel where we take you through the little snippets of life that makes Upward Bound special to all of us. We have such a variety of students and experiences to share and we can’t wait to begin :) We’ll keep in touch

Salamat (Thank You),Maribell Pabalan Staff Adviser

Pics of the Week

top left: Noel catches up on reading during the trip.top right: After an exchange of kind words, students plant their kalo shoots.bottom left: Kahea and Hoku pose for the camera en route to their next rotation at the lo‘i.bottom right: UB girls enjoy a quick game of Ninja during lunch break