The TRIO Upward Bound program has been in existence for 50 years. The program is a federally funded pre-college program which supports the persistence and retention of low-income, potential first-generation students as they prepare for college. The TRIO programs have assisted thousands of students in their preparation and transition to higher education. Today, the program has been under constant threats of facing funding cuts or the program being eliminated altogether. This has made the job as director more difficult as one must provide services to students while the Department of Education is requiring more and more objectives needing to be reached with less funding. This dissertation is a case study of a program in Michigan where it examines a director in how she navigates through the constant program cuts and ever changing objectives to provide resources, facilities and programming to help students to reach the goal of graduating from a four- year university with a baccalaureate degree. Eight current and former Upward Bound students within the program, along with a college administrator and director took part in interviews in 2014 to provide data in how the director has managed the program in the past 15 years. The results of the data showed 21 themes emerging from the study. There were six major themes that were essential in order for students to be successful. The implication is that other programs could use the data gather in this study to create successful programs. In the study Kurt Lewins Authoritarian Leadership model could be used in other programs that may be set up in a similar fashion as the program in this study. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2222/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]