Imagemaker Award Goes to Upward Bound's Phillip Cathey From: University of Cincinnati Currents Date: February 18, 2000 By: Dawn Fuller For years, the UC community has been aware of his outstanding achievements, now Upward Bound director Phillip Cathey and his staff have been honored by some of the most respected leaders of Greater Cincinnati- they're recipients of the Special Recognition Award from Applause! Magazine. Assistant director Cynthia Partridge, academic coordinator Brinson Terry and administrative assistant Eleanor Bolar, in addition to Cathay and the entire UC Upward Bound program, will be honored with the award at the Imagemaker Awards ceremony Feb. 19. The Imagemaker Awards have been a tradition since 1989, praising the service and achievements of African Americans. Cathey has been director of UC's Upward Bound program since 1994. First established at UC in 1968, the university has one of the oldest such programs nationwide. Upward Bound is a year-round program aimed at disadvantaged high school students and provides motivation and academic support to keep them on the path toward a college degree. UC's Upward Bound recruits high school students in the Cincinnati Public and Princeton school districts. Cathey's career at UC began nearly 25 years ago, in a sister program to Upward Bound, which is now called Student Support Services. Cathey says his job satisfaction comes from watching the success of students from the same background as his own. "I was a first-generation college student and at that time, there weren't the financial aid opportunities that there are now," explains Cathey. Raised in Newark, N.J., he worked at the post office and a machine operation factory to help get through college. He continued to work when he attended Virginia State College in the 1960s, making 50 cents an hour at his first college job. He attended graduate school at UC on a Danforth Fellowship.