Upward Bound receives scrapbooking donations

Time waits for no one, but the importance of chronicling experiences of a unique academic program for future generations was illustrated recently by the generous support of a Yuma retailer.

For a second year in a row, Arizona Western College received a donation of $1,000 in supplies from Mementos, a scrapbook and card-making store, for the Upward Bound summer program. Lisa Nickle, Mementos owner, stressed the importance of preserving memories.

"It doesn't have to include photos all the time, that's the big misconception. But I think almost everyone has hidden artistic talent; they just don't know it."

Mementos stocks a variety of paper, ribbons, bows, beads, buttons, paper flowers, shears, punches and other do-it-yourself supplies for the enterprising card-maker or archivist who wants to put a personal touch in a journal or greeting.

Last year when Nickle heard about how Upward Bound summer residency gives low-income and first-generation college-bound students a taste of college while still in high school, she became intrigued with helping them transcribe the experience to yearbooks.

"I hope students get into the habit of keeping journals because time goes by so quickly and once time slips away, you can't recapture the moment," Nickle said.

Lizett Acosta, 15, a junior at Cibola High School, said she likes doing arts and crafts. She noted that Terry Shove, Upward Bound director, encourages the students to cultivate a career goal now, which helped her focus on her aspirations toward becoming a medical technologist.

Lizett also said an assignment for a yearbook was a difficult proposition at first because she had no idea how to start and did not feel especially creative. Yet ideas eventually came to her.

"I saw Veronica's book (Upward Bound classmate) and it was all cool," Lizett said. "I put in flowers (paper) but I didn't know how to curl them. But then I added heart stickers and buttons to make it pretty. But this year, the first thing I did was took a bunch of glue and put beads all over it because last year the buttons kept slipping out."

Veronica Suarez, 15, a San Luis High School junior, said that everyone in Upward Bound has bonded and they inspire one another to strive for excellence in their classes at AWC so they will get accepted at a university. Veronica said she would like to attend Princeton to study psychology.

Although flattered by others' compliments for her yearbook, she said she just randomly pasted ribbons, buttons and beaded flowers in her book.

San Luis classmate Leslie Castro, 16, agreed that Upward Bound is a great experience because the rigors of the six weeks of classes prepare them to handle college-level work. And it provided her the opportunity to know students she would otherwise not have had the chance to meet.

Elizabeth Madrigal, Upward Bound academic coordinator, explained the intent of the yearbook project was to provoke students to tap into their creativity. To help them achieve their goal, AWC loaned students cameras to take their own photographs to record their experiences at the summer residency.

"I was thrilled beyond belief to see our product in their projects," Mementos owner Nickle said. "It is always fantastic to see somebody develop their artistic growth, and I look forward to doing it again next year."