HOUSTON, June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/—Continental Airlines (NYSE: CAL) has announced the names of 12 high school seniors from Houston, New York, San Antonio, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., who will receive airline tickets to visit college campuses with their parents through a Continental Airlines/Upward Bound partnership called “Volando al Futuro/Flying Toward the Future.” Continental provides the tickets to help Hispanic Upward Bound participants and their parents explore the possibility of attending college away from home.
“Going away from home for college is hard enough for most Hispanic students, but having to do so without the opportunity to visit the campus first is even more difficult,” said Sandra Rodriguez, a senior at Jefferson High School in Houston and participant in the Houston Community College Upward Bound program. “Thanks to Continental`s ticket donation, I will be able to make an informed decision and my parents will feel more at ease about where I will be living and studying for the next four years.”
The following Upward Bound participants will receive Continental tickets to fly to colleges they are considering for fall 2003. The students have been accepted to the colleges they plan to visit; the college names are included in parenthesis.
- Houston Community College Upward Bound, Houston, Texas:  Maria Freire, MacArthur High School (Regis College, Boston, Mass.); Sandra Rodriguez,  Jefferson High School (Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colo.); Gabriela Romero, MacArthur High School (American University, Washington, D.C.)—Columbia University Upward Bound, New York:  Andres Figueroa,  Environmental Studies High School (Virginia State University, Petersburg, Va.) —Trinity University Upward Bound, San Antonio, Texas:  Martin Venzor Jr., Health Careers High School (Minnesota State University, Moorhead); David Yasin, International School of the Americas High School (Catholic
    University of the Americas, Washington, D.C.); Sonia Gonzalez, Health Careers High School (DePaul University, Chicago)—East Los Angeles Community College Upward Bound, Los Angeles, Calif.:
Juan Pasillas, Huntington Park High School (Cornell University, Ithaca,  N.Y.)—Latin American Youth Center Upward Bound, Washington, D.C.:  Marvin
Diaz, Theodore Roosevelt High School (Texas Southern University, Houston, Texas); Jennifer Garcia, Washington International High School (Boston College, Boston, Mass.); Clinton Rayfield, Wilson High School (North Carolina A & T University, Greensboro, N.C.)

“We thank Continental Airlines for providing our students and their families the opportunity to gain a degree of comfort as they embark on this exciting new journey in their lives—a college education,” said Elda Cisneros, Director, Houston Community College Upward Bound, Houston, Texas.
Continental began its “Volando al Futuro” partnership with Upward Bound, a project of the federal government`s TRIO program designed to prepare low- income first-generation college-bound students for the college experience, in September 2002. Ticket recipients must be Upward Bound participants; each individual Upward Bound program handles its own application and selection requirements.
“We are pleased to make it possible for these Upward Bound students to broaden their horizons to a wider world of educational opportunities,” said Maria Cristina Osorio, Manager of Public Relations, Latin America, Continental Airlines.
Continental Airlines, the second-largest U.S. airline to Latin America and the Caribbean in passengers and destinations, operates daily nonstop flights for approximately 600 departures a week to 49 cities in 22 countries in those regions.
Continental Airlines has been included for six consecutive years in HISPANIC Magazine`s “Corporate 100 Providing the Most Opportunities for Latinos.” Continental began its “Latinization” initiative providing specialized service to Latin American and U.S. Spanish-speaking passengers in 1997. Latinization includes Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking flight attendants, regional Latin cuisine, and Spanish-language entertainment on board flights to Latin America; bilingual customer service representatives and Spanish-language airport signage, flight information, and e-ticket machines in major U.S. airports. In the U.S., passengers may make reservations in Spanish at 1-800-537-9222. Spanish-speaking customers in the U.S. also may call Continental`s Spanish-language, voice-activated flight arrival, departure and gate information line at 1-800-579-3938.
Continental Airlines is the world`s seventh-largest airline and has more than 2,200 daily departures. With 130 domestic and 95 international destinations, Continental has the broadest global route network of any U.S. airline, including extensive service throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. Continental has hubs serving New York, Houston, Cleveland and Guam, and carries approximately 41 million passengers per year on the newest jet fleet among major U.S. airlines. For more company information, visit continental.com .
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