Bound to Hurt : Education: Threatened cuts could defeat a program that depends on federal funds to prepare disadvantaged students for college.

When Alfred Soto’s father died of lung cancer four years ago, the eighth-grader’s life took a downward turn. Alfred’s grades began to slip and depression set in during his freshman year.

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But the Upward Bound Program rescued the Rio Mesa High School graduate from his slump.

“The program was like a surrogate father to me,” said the youngest of four children of Mexican immigrants. “This is the single greatest factor that influenced me to go to college.”

Next fall, Alfred, 17, is headed to Stanford to study mechanical engineering. But he and his 59 classmates may be the last Upward Bound students to improve their lives through the rigorous extracurricular work, which includes a three-year plan of Saturday classes during the school year and an intensive five-week course in the summer.

The federally funded program, which has operated out of Cal Lutheran University in Thousand Oaks for 15 years, is in danger of being cut by Congress to balance the budget.

“They can’t cut it,” Alfred said. “The sophomores and juniors in the program have the potential of getting into the best schools. They just need to be pushed like I was.”

Upward Bound, a national program with about 600 chapters, was designed to raise students out of poverty by encouraging them to take their studies seriously. To qualify, a student must be from a low-income family whose members have never gone to college.

Ventura County’s program draws 60 students from five high schools: Moorpark, Rio Mesa, Channel Islands, Hueneme and Camarillo.

The students are selected for their college potential and their need for the guidance Upward Bound provides.

“If I have a student who is getting all A’s in honors classes, and another who is intelligent but has poor study skills and no idea which college prep classes to take or how to fill out the forms, I’ll take the one who isn’t as well prepared,” director Laura Harkey said.

During the school year, the students meet one-on-one with tutors for help with their classwork. The summer session at Cal Lutheran offers intensive courses in everything from computer programming to SAT preparation. The students also get time for aerobics and martial arts.

Harkey believes that if lawmakers could hear her success rate, they would not cut her Department of Education funding--$239,000 every three years. In the past 15 years, she has had only one student drop out of the program. In the past five years, 100% have gone on to college and nearly all of them have finished.

One of them is Britt Molina, 21, a graduate of Channel Islands High School, who came back to Cal Lutheran this week as a counselor for the summer session. The daughter of farm workers plans to go to medical school when she graduates from Cal State Northridge in two years. She met three of her college roommates--who major in business, psychology and criminology--through the Upward Bound program at Cal Lutheran.

“I’ve met friends for life through this program,” she said. “But more importantly, it taught me that I had the potential to be whatever I wanted and how to do better in school. I would not have gone to college if it weren’t for Upward Bound.”

“Who knows where we would be if they had cut this program six years ago?” said counselor Felix Cruz, 25, a CSUN senior and former Upward Bound student studying to be an elementary school teacher. “While I was in this program, the question changed from ‘can or can’t I go to college?’ to ‘which school should I go to?’ ”

Unlike Cruz and Molina, 16-year-old Lupita Montejano has spent only one year in the program. She regrets that it may be her last.

“For the first time, I feel I can go to college,” said the Camarillo High School junior. “I have a whole different perspective on my future.” Lupita said she had assumed college was only for people from educated families.

“Before I would just hang out with the girls and go shopping,” she said. “I’d hurry through my school work to get to other things. But my real friends are in this program. My old friends and I don’t look at our futures the same way.”

Lupita said Upward Bound showed her how to construct a schedule of college-prep classes. She hopes the program will still be around to guide her through the college application process next year.

“I’m just going to pray every day. I want others to have the chance that I did.”