Adia Mason has dreams.

The 16-year-old from Catonsville wants to double major in nursing and psychology and hopes to become a neonatal nurse. She wants to minor in business and marketing and ultimately start a business to help the mentally disabled.

For the rising junior at Milford Mill Academy, Delaware State University is at the top of her college wish list. But going into high school she wasn't sure how to make those dreams a reality.

With the help from the Community College of Baltimore County's Upward Bound program, she has found a path. A teacher recommended the program to Mason and she joined her freshman year. She said it has helped her stay focused and goal-oriented, with an eye on the prize — a bachelor's degree.

“That was a gift from God getting in this program,” she said.

The year-round program is based at CCBC's Catonsville campus. During the school year, Upward Bound hosts Saturday tutoring sessions, and when schools are closed, it offers other programs. During spring break, students can go on college visits out of state.

On the walls of program director Sherron Edwards' office are pennants of the colleges the students have visited through Upward Bound. Outside her office are brochures from different colleges for students to investigate.

The summer is when the program kicks into high gear, Edwards said.

For six weeks, students get a college experience staying at University of Maryland, Baltimore County dorms and taking specialized courses on the campus of CCBC in a variety of subjects including history, Spanish, theater, English and science. The classes are taught by teachers in the Baltimore and Howard county school systems.

“One of my goals as a teacher is to make sure [students] have all the information so when they go in there in the fall, they're like, ‘We already know this' and they're ahead of the game,” said Kerry Martin, a Howard County science teacher, shortly before giving a lesson on atoms. He said he enjoys seeing students come back to him telling him they get As and Bs in their first quarter back in school.

The program, which started nationally as part of the Higher Education Act of 1965, started at CCBC in 1987, Edwards said.

Upward Bound is free for participants. Two-thirds of the 76 students in the program qualify for free- and reduced-price lunch and come from families in which neither parent has a bachelor's degree, Edwards said. The other third meets one of those two criteria.

On a national level, 61,361 students took part in the U.S. Department of Education program in fiscal 2015, with an average of $4,293 per student, according to the department.

Students also are able to earn college credit through Upward Bound, giving them a boost before they enroll in higher education.

For Lansdowne High School rising senior Kendra Cooper, 17, of Woodlawn, the program could be what's needed for her to become the first in her family to graduate from college. The program has helped her make friends and solidify her decision to go to college.

While students have been able to take college courses in the past through the program, this summer is the first time a dedicated Upward Bound college course has been offered.

CCBC adjunct professor Charles Shimonkevitz teaches English 101 to 11 Upward Bound students four days a week. He said it's fun for him to come to class each day because the students are motivated.

Moving forward, Edwards wants to expand Upward Bound and double enrollment — if she can get funding from Washington.

She feels she can point to successes. She tracks students' progress, and notes that all the participants in the class of 2016 who graduated are either enrolled or have deferred enrollment in a post-secondary education program by the fall.

Tony Winston, 25, got involved in Upward Bound following his freshman year of high school. At the time, he was homeless and needed a place to focus on his schoolwork.

It was at Upward Bound's summer program where he took an interest in science. When he went back to high school, he got his first B, in biology.

After graduating from high school early, he attended North Carolina A&T and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte with a degree in computer information technology. He now teaches technology at a middle school in North Carolina.

Since 2012, Winston has returned to Baltimore County to work for Upward Bound during the summers. He is now the assistant director for the resident hall and also teaches a business class.

He describes the program as a safe haven for students, and said he wanted to return to help motivate teens who face situations similar to his.

jbleiweis@baltsun.com