Director of High School Upward Bound at Metro, McIntosh, who was just recognized as a 20-year member of the Association of Special Programs in Region Eight (ASPIRE), is an Upward Bound alumnus and credits the program with getting her into college.

"I was from a low-income family, a single mom with seven kids, and raised in the projects," she explains. "College wasn't the path for my family."

In 1971, McIntosh started as an Upward Bound student when the program was housed at Colorado Women's College. In 1972 when she enrolled at Colorado State University, McIntosh was the first of her six siblings to attend college. After stopping out for a couple of years to start a family, she returned to school and began working at the Upward Bound office, which had since relocated to Metro.

The move reunited McIntosh with her Upward Bound mentor, Fred Gentry—a man Upward Bound students affectionately called "Dad"—and he helped McIntosh acquire programming and grant-writing skills while she earned her degree in performing and cultural arts. Though she initially wanted to be a dancer, she joked with Gentry that when she grew up, she wanted his job.

In her years at Upward Bound, McIntosh has served as a counselor, tutor, secretary and teacher -- and now she does hold Gentry's job. The program provides classes, tutoring and support for 70 Denver-area low-income and first generation high-school students, with the goal of getting them to attend college. About 90 percent of Metro's Upward Bound students enroll in higher education.

"And guess what," she says, "they call me, `Mom.'"