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Upward Bound Scholars Win State
by Joe Weidman
Team members in yellow
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It is the North Carolina State Scholar's Bowl, and it is all coming down to the final question. The question that can win it for the Mars Hill team is about a metamorphic form of limestone rock. Fortunately, Christopher Petros, whose name ironically means rock in Greek, knows the answer is marble and clinches victory for the Mars Hill team against Southwestern Community College.
The Upward Bound program at Mars Hill College, led by Academic Coordinator Mark Tabone, will be heading to Atlanta to compete in the regional on April 24th against state championship teams from Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. This is a big thrill for the team, considering they fell one place short last year in the state competition held at Mars Hill College.
The program's motto is "Upward Bound can help you make your college education a reality." Upward Bound is a grant-funded program of the U.S. Department of Education. It serves first-generation college students from local high schools. The Mars Hill Program serves Asheville, Erwin, Madison, Mitchell, Mountain Heritage (Yancey County), and North Buncombe. The program offers such benefits as a six-week summer program on Mars Hill College's campus, fee waivers for the SAT, ACT, and college applications, and the chance to earn six college credit hours. There are 770 Upward Bound programs in the country.
The Scholar's Bowl team consists of four students and two alternates. Team Captain Danny Coleman, a junior at North Buncombe, has been the highest scoring individual Scholar's Bowl participant in North Carolina for two years in a row, according to Tabone. The others are Petros, Ashley Griffin, Vickie Hollifield, Jeffrey Page, and Alaina Rhodes.
In the state competition, the Mars Hill team competed against twelve other Upward Bound programs in North Carolina. "The students are asked questions of English, history, science, math, current events, and sports…it is sort of like a game show," Tabone said. In the finals it was the Mars Hill team against the team from Southwestern Community College in Sylva. "Of course we are practicing and preparing. We have been practicing since September, so I would say preparation is key to our success," Tabone said.
It is possible that some of these scholars may attend Mars Hill College. Tabone says, "We try to get students to apply to whatever college they want, but we (at Mars Hill) usually get at least one a year…Our program, in general, has a student or two a year who usually does work-study for us."
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