CEHD News

Program Helps Students Prepare for College
by Kirsten Sundell

Deloreon Burton wants to be President. Thanks to his involvement in the GEAR UP Kentucky program, the Paul L. Dunbar High School senior is well on his way to his goal.

Deloreon joined GEAR UP five years ago at Winburn Middle School in Lexington, Ky., a GEAR UP school affiliated with UofL. Since then, he has traveled around the state at attend three intensive summer camps and once to San Francisco to represent Kentucky at a national GEAR UP convention.

GEAR UP–Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs–is a federally funded program targeted at middle and high school students and their families that encourages them to take challenging coursework, consider many career paths, learn about financial aid and prepare for postsecondary education.

Kentucky’s first GEAR UP grant began in 2000 and ended in 2005. In August 2005, the state was awarded a second, six-year GEAR UP grant to provide additional services to the children of Kentucky.

The grant was written by Kirsten Sundell, principal investigator for GEAR UP in UofL’s College of Education and Human Development. The grant will leverage more than $42 million in federal and state matching funds toward college awareness and preparatory activities for Kentucky students.

Centrally administered by the Council on Postsecondary Education, GEAR UP is based at several host institutions in Kentucky, including UofL.

Burton spoke about the value of his GEAR UP experiences at a press conference announcing the current grant. Burton described the courses in math, science, study skills, time management, college registration and enrollment, video productions, computers and writing he and others received during GEAR UP activities and summer camps.

Burton particularly praised the ACT and SAT preparation he and other students received at his third GEAR UP summer camp.

“We took a practice ACT test in English and math at the beginning of the camp,” Burton says. “Many students greatly improved their scores from the first test to the last.”

As it prepares to serve a new cohort of middle school students, UofL’s GEAR UP program is committed to encourage the success of juniors and seniors like Burton who participated under the first statewide grant.

“We really don’t differentiate here between the old grant and the new–we’re planning for a shared future for these two program,” says Jenni Edwards, area director of GEAR UP at UofL. “We measure our success by the success of the students now getting ready to graduate. Our goal is to help all of our kids score well on the ACT, get accepted to college, and find the resources to finance their educations.”

Activities geared toward students include frequent ACT workshops offered at local schools and intensive Friday Visits on the UofL campus. Visiting students participate in seminars on the GoHigherKy.com college-planning website as well as sessions on admissions, advising, study strategies and academic assistance. They also take campus and residence-hall tours.

At a recent campus visit, Bardstown High School students enjoyed a pizza lunch and a question-and-answer panel featuring UofL undergraduate and graduate students.

Marshall Vance, a Bardstown senior who attends a half-day vocational program, says he wants to go to community college and transfer to a four-year university to study computer-aided design and architecture. The Friday Visit made Vance feel more confident about paying for college. “I learned about a lot of opportunities for financial aid on the GoHigher website,” he says. “I didn’t even know it existed.”

Helping students, parents, schools and the community to recognize how many college-planning resources exist is a core mission of the UofL GEAR UP program.

The program recently convened the first meeting of the Community Council on College Awareness (CCCA), a coalition of UofL campus partners, local colleges, community organizations, church leaders and other nonprofit organizations concerned with increasing academic achievement and enrollment in postsecondary education. It was the first of many meetings slated by the CCCA to increase awareness and interest in GEAR UP and similar outreach services.

The ultimate goal is to help move students like Burton and Marshall. “GEAR UP has made a tremendous impact on my life,” Burton adds. “I hope that it will continue to serve and assist students just as it has assisted me.”