Carolina’s Project Uplift has grown from a small, student-led initiative to the point where the program brings 1,200 high school students to campus each summer.
Directed by the Office of Diversity and Multicultural Affairs, the summer residential recruitment program began 43 years ago with the goal of enhancing the racial/ethnic and socio-economic diversity of Carolina’s undergraduate student body.
Each year, high school guidance counselors across North Carolina nominate students to attend the two-day program. They are from the top 25 percent of their class and are from historically underrepresented populations: African American, American Indian, Latina/o, Asian American, low-income, rural and first-generation.
Project Uplift allows students to experience Carolina for themselves and gain essential information about the campus.
The program’s main goal is to recruit students to UNC-Chapel Hill, but program organizers also focus on helping students choose the college, university or higher education opportunity that best serves their needs. Campus administrators and faculty show the students how to apply for scholarships and student aid, as well as teach them how to apply themselves in an academic setting.
Project Uplift challenges and encourages students to become leaders. Participants leave knowing more about themselves and others, and how to make a college experience work for them. UNC-Chapel Hill is a committed and inclusive community of people who want to make life successful. Participants have the opportunity to learn, to network and to make lifelong friends.