Elizabeth Dunnington is a sophomore at Penney High School in Hamilton. This is her second year in Upward Bound and she is enjoying every moment of it. For the past month she has been interning and job shadowing at the Trenton Republican-Times. After high school she plans to attend North Central Missouri College for two years and get an associate’s degree before transfering to another college to major in criminal justice and go into law enforcement.
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by Elizabeth Dunnington
UB Student
North Central Missouri College’s local Upward Bound group was literally sleeping with the fishes last week when they spent the night in the aquarium at the Omaha Zoo.
After they had pasta at Spaghetti Works in the Old Market District for supper, they then made it to the zoo for orientation and a night hike. During the hike the students saw many animals, but the pair of week-old lion cubs were definitely a fan favorite with the group. After exploring the zoo, the group settled into the aquarium exhibit and watched “Finding Nemo” until midnight, when everyone went to sleep.
After having breakfast at the Durham TreeTop Restaurant, the group went back to the aquarium to have a one-on-one discussion with one of the aquarists about his job and what he does every day. After he left to get the exhibits ready for that day’s opening, the UBers were released to go explore the zoo in small groups. They witnessed some adorable things, like one of the baby sea lions trying to swim and some funny things too, like the UB Academic Advisor getting hit in the back with monkey poop.
After having lunch, students and staff loaded onto the bus and said farewell to the zoo and headed to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for a college visit. Everyone thought that it was a very large and beautiful campus. When their tour was over, the UBers got on the bus and headed to St. Joseph to eat at CiCi’s Pizza for supper. With everyone full, the UBers finally headed back to Trenton. When everyone got back to campus, it wasn’t long before everyone quickly settled in for the night.
Upward Bound is a grant-funded program that assists high school students to prepare, achieve and accomplish high school graduation then successfully enroll in postsecondary education. North Central Missouri College’s UB program serves students from Trenton, Chillicothe, Gallatin, Hamilton, Jamesport and Galt school districts. Upward Bound is 100 percent federally funded through the U.S, Department of Education at $250,000.
