PRESQUE ISLE — The National Council of Educational Opportunity Associations has announced that Jennifer Hay of Ashland had been nominated and selected to participate in the National Congress. She has been a participant in the University of Maine at Presque Isle’s Educational Talent Search program.

Upward Bound and Talent Search students from across the country were nominated for the program, and Hay will be one of the 100 delegates selected to participate. Hay was selected for her outstanding personal goals, demonstrated academic achievement and leadership potential.

On June 16, 1985, Sargent Shriver, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, announced the inception of the Upward Bound program designed to wage war against “America’s greatest talent waste — the loss of skill and exceptional minds of those young people who are capable of going to college, but cannot do so because of the psychological, social and physical conditions of poverty.”

On June 16, 1990, Hay will join 100 other Upward Bound and Talent Search student delegates in Washington, D.C., in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the birth of the educational opportunity program.

Hay is the daughter of William and Dawn Hay and is a junior at Ashland High School. She has been involved with UM-Presque Isle’s Educational Talent Search program for the past two years.