In addition, a weekly Group session for all live-in staff serves as both a model for their own student groups and as an opportunity to let off steam, discuss hot issues, and play together. Duos meet weekly, from ten minutes to two hours, depending on the need and mutual inclination. Duos are responsible for tracking their students' academic and social progress, and actually write the Community Involvement piece of the students' affective evaluations at the end of the summer, after gathering feedback from other staff members. Duos also serve the crucial role of point person for staff concerns about their students, collecting information and then working with a supervisor to troubleshoot and strategize when a student shows signs of struggle in several arenas at once. Typically Groups come to see themselves as a unit, often initiating activities which put them in contact outside of Group time.
Students respond enthusiastically to both counseling components year after year.
The chance to have a mentor, and to converse weekly with a small group of peers offers students a perspective and a sense of being connected that often makes the difference between alienation and inclusion, homesickness and a budding social self. The Judicial System Upward Bound programs are in the very fortunate position of being able to create just and educational judicial processes. In the Keene State College Upward Bound Program, a time-tested Governing Board is the foundation of our judicial system. The Board is an elected body of seven students and three staff, chosen to direct the self-government of the community. All members of the Upward Bound community are eligible to nominate and vote for Board members.