In this month’s missive from a University’s leader, Assistant Director of Upward Bound Elyse Pratt-Ronco ’02 reflects on the vital role UB plays in transforming the lives of first-generation-to-college students — and how working in the federally funded program the summer after her sophomore year at UMF changed the trajectory of her life.
Dear Alumni and Friends of UMF,
Two weeks ago 384 new graduates of UMF joined us as alumni. The campus was full of excitement, celebration, and hope. All we talked about was the future and where these students were heading next. I came to work the following Monday, sad that the semester was over and missing those who were graduated and gone.
Elyse Pratt-Ronco ’02, assistant director of Upward Bound at UMF. (Photo by Marc Glass.)
Campus has been quiet here for a few days, but not for much longer. If you didn’t spend summers on campus, it is probably hard to imagine what it is like when the majority of students are absent. For us at Upward Bound, summer is the time when the campus feels most alive. For the past 38 summers, Upward Bound has brought high school students to campus for six weeks to participate in a college immersion program. All of the students we serve are from western and central Maine, are low-income, and will be the first in their families to attend college. In about a month, 90 nervous students will arrive. They will be met by 24 staff members (many of whom are UMF alumni as well). They will envision themselves as college students, challenge themselves to do things no one in their families have done before, and build the scaffolding for their success in post-secondary education. For many of the families we serve, it will be the first time any of them has set foot on a college campus. Each will bravely take the first step toward changing the history of their family. This summer will change their lives. I know this because 20 years ago, it changed mine.
When I was offered a summer position as a teaching assistant for the UMF Upward Bound program after my sophomore year of college, I was unprepared for the ways it would change the whole trajectory of my life. While working with low-income and potentially first-generation students, I was confronted with the weight of my own privilege: something I had been completely unaware of until that point. It was the beginning of a search for answers to questions of social justice and equity that would shape my career as a researcher and a practitioner. As I packed up my room in Purington Hall at the end of that first transformative summer, I knew there was something the world needed of me, and first I had to learn as much as I could. I did naively believe that the only way I could find my answers was to leave Maine altogether. And then I made my way back here to work at UMF, back to the very place it all started. I didn’t actually need to experience urban life to find examples of poverty and inequality. They are surrounding us in our communities. Each day my students are impacted by popular beliefs that are based on biased assumptions about people living in poverty — myths that, when preserved, lead to keeping people in poverty, rather than helping them out of it. Add to that, the ruralness of their location, and there are significant barriers to success.
At one time, there were some loud voices in the field of education, telling us that disadvantaged students held deficits too great to overcome; that students growing up in poverty weren’t likely to achieve in the same ways their more privileged counterparts were. I was fearful implicit bias was driving decision making on every level: in the classroom, the school, the community. I think we are emerging from that deficit thinking and shifting our perspective to look at myriad strengths of low-income students. When we shift our mindsets, suddenly there is more opportunity for intervention. No longer will we regard poor people as less than, instead we will seek to increase their protective factors, build systems to support them, and watch them rise to meet the expectations we have laid out. That is a hopeful prospect!
As an alumna, it is evident that what we learned here at UMF will help us do this important job. UMF’s commitment to serving Maine students means that the institution is also invested in the success of low-income and first-generation students.
Over 50 percent of the students attending UMF will be the first in their families to earn a degree. Perhaps that is your story as well. Perhaps UMF gave you, or someone you know, a transformative educational opportunity. I turned that sophomore summer job as a teaching assistant into a full time job at Upward Bound, working to expand post-secondary access for students who are traditionally underrepresented in higher education.
I am also very excited to be a part of one of UMF’s new graduate certificate program in Systems of Student Support. This certificate is an opportunity for educators to delve into the theory and research behind social and emotional learning. Those enrolled will garner skills to help them better support all students in the multiple systems they develop in. Most likely, it will also galvanize educators’ already understood wisdom of strategies that bolster student success. To classes in poverty and education, risk and resilience, and implementation of systems of support, participants will add their own area of interest whether it be mindfulness, child development, gifted education, English Language Learner pedagogy, or literacy. The program affords educators the opportunity to focus their attention on programs and practices that will ultimately make change on multiple levels. And it will help us all to better serve the diverse needs of our students.
When I collected data for my dissertation research, I interviewed high school students who were growing up poor. I asked one young man what he wanted others to know about him and other students like him. He said, “Don’t give up on us.” Those of you who are educators, helpers, leaders, and good citizens can honor this young person’s charge for us all. Each day in my work here at UMF, I am striving for a balance between keeping myself anchored to my work directly with students, and addressing the systemic issues impacting them in ways they are often unaware of. I have learned not to feel guilty about my privilege, but to use my position of power as a place to serve with reverence, to dismantle systems of classism, and to look forward to a world where the work I do is obsolete.
Elyse Pratt-Ronco ’02 has taught and mentored low-income students served by Upward Bound for the past 19 years and consults with Maine school districts to provide research-based workshops on the impacts of rural poverty and ways to increase student resilience. In addition to serving as Assistant Director of Upward Bound at UMF, she teaches graduate courses on Poverty and Education as well as Risk and Resilience for the University’s Graduate Studies in Education program. She also volunteers for the Farmington-area sexual assault helpline and facilitates grief groups. A graduate of UMF’s elementary education program, Pratt-Ronco earned her master’s in Developmental and Educational Psychology and her doctorate in Applied Developmental and Educational Psychology from Boston College. Her research on rural poverty and resilience has been recognized by the American Educational Research Association.