News

Visits to the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, National September 11 Memorial and Museum, National Civil Rights Museum and Slave Haven Museum were educational, exciting and all virtual for Southern Illinois University Edwardsville East St. Louis Center Collinsville’s Upward Bound Scholars Academy (UBSA) program students.                                

USBA students traveled virtually to Tennessee on Monday, March 1 and to New York City on Monday, April 5 for cultural tours that provided students with information and enrichment, according to Yvonne Hart, UBSA program director. 

“We learned about the diversity of New York City,” said Hart. “Queens has 48% of its residents who are immigrants, and in the Jackson Heights neighborhood more than 100 languages are spoken. We learned how the Statue of Liberty was brought to New York City, and that Joseph Pulitzer, a major newspaper publisher, raised money for the pedestal by asking readers to donate change. 

“We learned about the competition to build the world’s tallest building in New York City and saw images of the Sky Boys, who were mostly Italian and Irish immigrants, building the Empire State Building without any safety harnesses. We also learned that the New Year’s Eve celebration at Times Square started in 1904 by a German Jewish immigrant who wanted to celebrate the new construction of the headquarters of The New York Times newspaper, which he owned.” 

In March, UBSA students headed south to Tennessee by virtue of an online jaunt. 

“Students were immersed into the rich and complex civil rights history of Memphis and Nashville,” said Hart. “They learned the impact of the Mississippi River upon economics and enslaved people, took a ride along a Mississippi Riverboat and visited the Slave Haven Museum. 

“They discussed how the sanitation workers strike of ‘I Am A Man’ protests parallel today’s protest movement. We listened to excerpts of Dr. King’s last speech, ‘I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,’ before entering the National Civil Rights Museum to see Dr. King’s guest room and the balcony at the Lorraine Motel, where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.” 

“I enjoyed the fact that you could walk in and see the room where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stayed while at the hotel,” said UBSA student Jynicia McDonald, a sophomore at Collinsville High School who attended both the March and April virtual tours. “I learned that the people who worked together to build buildings in New York, only worked if their whole crew was present. There were no replacements if someone was absent. The 9/11 Museum is what stuck with me the most because of the events surrounding it.” 

“Jynicia is a great student, and it was good to have her participate in the tours,” said Hart. “Jynicia was the February UBSA Scholar of the Month. She joined UBSA in January 2021. In only a couple of months, she has excelled and showed an amazing commitment to her academics, Upward Bound and her personal growth.” 

Upward Bound Scholars Academy (UBSA) is a TRIO program federally funded by the U.S. Department of Education. UBSA serves Collinsville High School students, ages 14-19, from low-income families and from families in which neither parent holds a bachelor’s degree. The goal of Upward Bound is to increase the rate at which participants complete secondary education and enroll in and graduate from institutions of postsecondary education. 

Photo:
Jynicia McDonald, SIUE Upward Bound Scholars Academy student and sophomore at Collinsville High School.