BLACKSBURG -- As their teacher jots down notes on an overhead projector and talks about things like quantum numbers and periodic trends, 11 teenagers take notes, some more diligently than others.

The 8 a.m. class in Virginia Tech's Holden Hall resembles a typical high school chemistry class, except the date on the calendar says June 27.

But it's not summer school, at least not in the typical sense.

Instead of reviewing material they failed to learn last year, the students are getting a head start on the upcoming year. And while they get grades, they receive no school credit for their work.

The class is one of several that students take as part of Upward Bound, a national program started in 1965 to help low-income high school students get into college. Tech has participated in it since 1967.

Sitting front and center in the class was Breanna Pinto, a rising senior at Eastern Montgomery High School. She's been in Upward Bound for three years and is thinking about going to Hollins University or Radford University. If she does, she'll be the first member of her family to go to college.

There are 85 students in Tech's program this year. Two-thirds of them are required to be potential first-generation college students and from families making no more than 150 percent of the poverty level. The remaining students must meet one of those two criteria.

Students in Tech's program are drawn from far Southwest Virginia and the New River Valley as well as the Piedmont region and the city of Lynchburg.

Supporters of the program point to numbers that show many more students who complete Upward Bound go on to college compared with others from low-income families.

But detractors argue that most students who have the motivation to join the program would go to college with or without Upward Bound.

At a time when the percentage of low-income students going to four-year colleges is dropping and politicians are giving more attention to the "achievement gap" between students from low-income and high-income families, the program has been left out of President Bush's budget two years in a row with funding being redirected to help fund No Child Left Behind.

Upward Bound and a similar program for younger students, Talent Search, were saved last year in Congress and appear to have enough support again this year, though the program's fate probably won't be decided until November. They've been threatened before, in 1983 and 1995.

"After last year I was surprised that we had to fight again this year," Wilson said. "It's just one of those things that domestic spending always seems to come up for a battle. I would hope next year that we don't have to fight the battles."

Now getting A's and B's, Pinto is clearly convinced of the program's effectiveness. She said she didn't make the honor roll until she started in Upward Bound before her sophomore year. She was even held back in third grade.

As she crossed the muddy Tech Drillfield on Tuesday, she laughed recalling how easy her little brother's third-grade homework appeared to her years later.

"I was like, 'How did I not get this stuff?' " she said.

While the six weeks that students spend at a local college each summer -- capped off by a road trip to another city to tour colleges -- is the highlight of the program, the staff works with students throughout the year. Along with weekend visits to campuses, students receive tutoring and advice on college applications, financial aid and the SAT as well as waivers on fees for exams.

"My family doesn't have a lot of money and it helps a lot," Pinto said. "It helps pay for SATs; it will help pay for applications. It helped pay for my AP exam."

In addition to a course load that includes chemistry, algebra and public speaking, Pinto is taking a class to prepare for the SAT this summer.

"You know, it's like those courses people pay $800 for," she said. "Except it's free."

Without getting into specifics, she said she "did OK" the first time she took the test. She'll take six practice exams over the course of the summer.

"I could do better," she said.

Pinto also does six hours of work-study a week, working on campus for a catering service. She works at a truck stop next to her Shawsville home the rest of the year. Her mom worked at a truck stop until quitting recently, and her stepfather is a truck driver. Pinto wants to be a teacher.

Postsecondary Education Opportunity, a newsletter devoted to researching the access to higher education, recently completed a nationwide study on the topic based on the percentage of students at colleges receiving Pell Grants.

Public four-year colleges in Virginia received a collective grade of F in the report, as did Virginia Tech.

Pinto said she isn't considering Virginia Tech because she wants to go to a smaller school, which is why Hollins appeals to her.

She has a list of all the important deadlines in the upcoming year for tests and applications.

Upward Bound staff talk to her regularly during the year, making sure she's on track and giving her a hard time if she doesn't do well in a class, she said.

Pinto admits she had reservations about joining a program that would involve going to school in the summer and on Saturdays.

Melony Blankenship, a friend of Pinto's and a senior at Rural Retreat High School in Wythe County, thinks the atmosphere and the freedom she gets during her time at Tech will help her when she goes to college.

"It's the closest experience you'll ever have to reality until you graduate," she said.

But while students spend mornings and early afternoons in class, the experience has a summer camp feel to it.

Students stay in a residence hall, eat on campus and get to reunite with friends from previous years. They sometimes take supervised trips to the movies or grocery store and have free time to fool around in a common room.

On Tuesday, several of them filled the common room after lunch, blowing kazoos they were given by someone at a 4-H camp on campus who was running for office.

Laughing and explaining that they'd all "vote for Brad," they left for another trip to class across the Drillfield, bookbags in hand and kazoos in their mouths.

"We're goofy and we have a lot of fun, but it's hard work," Pinto said.

Upward Bound costs

The annual budget for Upward Bound for the past four years. Numbers are in millions of dollars:

2003: $312.5

2004: $312.5

2005: $312.5

2006: $311

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