Even though his children are 3 and 5 years of age, Jim Woods can get them to eat anything, thanks to his infectious enthusiasm.

Although his wife, Marlene, can “cook me under the table,” Woods of Martinsville, said, his children, Cate, 3, and C.J., 5, and his stepdaughter, Olivia Gauthier, 17, prefer his cooking to their mother’s.

“To find something they all find palatable is a feat,” Woods, 36, said of his success.

His trick is to use a base food, such as tilapia, a fish with a flavor he calls “not overly fishy,” or chicken and spice it up with some “seasons that won’t overwhelm their little palates.”

This summer, 63 Henry and Patrick County high-schoolers are getting a taste of college life. Monday, they will begin a trip to Washington, D.C., to get a glimpse of the world beyond.

It’s all part of Upward Bound’s Summer Discovery Institute, which rounds out the first of a four-year local edition of a program supported by federal funds. Director Sharon Gilbert described it as an “academic program that prepares students to go to college.”