Sharing the Experience...

Greetings GEAR UP community! It was great to see everyone doing amazing things in light of National GEAR UP Week this week. I wanted to take some time to connect with you all and share my service to the state of Louisiana. 

As a fairly new idea for the state, there will be an election for state GEAR UP officers to serve as liaisons to the state GEAR UP Office and GEAR UP schools and their Explorers' Clubs. To help students get a better understanding of the election process, in addition to sharing my experience as a GUALA, I created a video; and with sharing with LA, I wanted to share with our national GEAR UP community as well! I have attached the edited version with just the State Officer portion (the entire video is approx. 30 mins!) Hope you are doing great! Continue to progress!

Much love,

TNT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSSM_fuPhZY&feature=youtu.be

College Life

Hello Everyone,

If there’s one thing I’ve realized after settling into the college life at North Carolina State University, it is that college is very different from high school. My weekly schedule consists of classes starting as early as 7:40am in the morning and others as late as 6:00pm in the evening, instead of the usual 8:00am to 3:30pm high school schedule. Instructors do not assign homework daily, but instead expect their students to study outside of class on their own time. Perhaps the most apparent difference between college and high school is in the student population. NC State University has a population of approximately 34,000 students, way more than Seventy-First High School. Despite experiencing these differences in environments for the first time, I was not shocked or intimidated when the fall semester began. I have the Fayetteville State University GEAR UP Program to thank for that!

Back when I was still in high school, the FSU GEAR UP Program arranged multiple workshops designated to informing students on college life and how to prepare for the changes between high school and college. Essentially, those workshops gave me a “heads up” on what to expect from my college experience as a freshman and how to make the most out of my experience. Another way GEAR UP prepared me for college was how all GEAR UP faculty members were always open to discuss issues concerning college. I distinctly remember Mr. Michelle, one of the faculty members and GEAR UP coaches, telling me about the huge student population difference between high school and college and how to handle it. The solution he gave me, which ended up working, was to make new friends constantly. He said that “The humongous college world will seem smaller when you can recognize faces.” By following his advice, the student population was no problem for me and I now have plenty of awesome friends that I hang out with all the time. 

                   GEAR UP helped me develop in many different way, one of which being my transition from a high school student to a college student. The informative GEAR UP workshops and caring faculty are what makes the FSU GEAR UP Program in North Carolina great! As a GUALA GEAR UP Alumni Leader, I hope to express my gratitude by giving back to the GEAR UP community during my year of service. (#GEARUPWORKS) :)

Best of wishes,

Julius Nani

A Little of Daisy

Hey everyone! I hope I am doing this right! Well, my name is Daisy Valentina Perez. I was raised in Presidio, Texas, a small town bordering Mexico. When I was in high school, I really did not think about going to college. No one in my family had gone to college and I really did not want to go either. Who wants to go to school for four more years of their lives right? I thought that I'd just get a job somewhere and then find  a place to live. However, I decided to go to college and try something different. Deep down I knew that I did not want to stay living in Presidio my whole life.
College has been an amazing experience for me. I have done things and met people that I would have never done otherwise. I got the chance to work with the new kids in the new GEAR UP Program and have learned so much from them. I guess that's all for now because I am not sure if this is going to post right!

Department Of Education Roundtable Discussion

Hello Everybody,

Last week Hector and I attended a roundtable discussion with Dr. Brenda Dann-Messier, Assistant Secretary for Vocational and Adult Education for the Department of Education.  I wanted to use this platform to inform everybody about  the content of the discussion as well as some potential concerns that we can all take back to our communities.  The theme of the discussion centered around both the successes and the struggles that individuals were experiencing within education programs across the United States.  These programs are vast in differences ranging from scholarship programs (such as GEAR UP) to education curriculums in community colleges (such as nursing programs).  For example, some curriculums have extraordinary success and graduation rates, whilst others drastically fail.  Thus, this "open bus tour" gave the Department of Education a chance to attempt cohesion between states' programs and future successes.  The phrase "don't reinvent the wheel" carries precedent here because the successes of programs across the United States are often transparent when applied to similar programs in different States.  Unification of these messages will hopefully skirt some of the disparities between States' education programs.

Gear Up has had extraordinary success.  It is our job to send the message to others to signalize these successes.  Some of the concerns expressed were:  rising cost of textbooks, tuition increase, loan repayment programs, loan interest increase, and falsification of likely outcomes of certain degrees and specialties.  In addition, stark comments were mentioned about the dwindling job market and how that impacted education.  This segment sparked my interest because it gave us the chance (as an individual) to express our personal concerns and reflect from our own experiences.  Here I raise the question to you all, what are your biggest barriers in your communities regarding education?  How can education be more efficient where you live?  What can we, as GUALA Alumni, do for our communities that will help create better education programs?

Lastly, when is our all expense paid Reunion?......just a thought....

GEAR UP WEEK!

Good Morning Leaders!!

I am currently at work in one of the public high schools in Bridgeport and I am planning for gear up week with my staff here in the gear up resource room!

I want to use the NCCEP Planning Documents to highlight some of our thoughts and events that we are currently working on. While this will be one of my shorter blogs, I really wanted to update you guys and also hear about what's been going on with you all for the exciting upcoming week!

Planning Questions

[Details subject to change]

1. What is our big, awesome, exciting main event for 2013 National GEARUP Week?

- Well, we are planning to host three different assemblies at Central High School, Harding High School, and Bassick High School in Bridgeport, CT since we are following the cohort of 2017 (our current freshman class). They are all new to the three high schools and this is our chance to really have gear up be apart of their high school experience.

2. What are our TOP THREE GOALS for the event?

- 1. To bring awareness to the entire class of 2017 regarding gear up and what gear up has to offer as resources.
- 2. To make connections with various school personnel and be able to build healthy, positive relationships to work effectively with throughout the next four years.
- 3. To allow the new gear up advisors to introduce themselves and start building rapport with the students to later lead into effective mentoring and advising.

3. How will we make our National GEARUP Week event happen? What are KEY MILESTONES or TASKS?

- We will be utilizing the auditoriums in each school and allow the following agenda to take place:

• Introduction power point and music of all the advisors and gear up program itself.
• Principals speak/Magnet administration (for Central)/mayor speak.
• Show video clip 1 on our seniors (who are mentors to the freshmen) speaking about their past experience with gear up. 
• Show video clip 2 on our seniors giving "Freshmen Survival Tips" and "MythBusters" in each school.
• Have our partners in the school as well as Yale speak about their relationship with gear up and what they have to offer as well. 
• Entertainment: Spoken Word Poet (Theme of content: Succes).
• Entertainment: Hip hop dancer.

4. Who are we inviting/encouraging/joining to participate?

- School administrations, class of 2017, yale representatives, etc. We would have loved for parents to be apart of this but since it will be during school hours, it's difficult to invite them. There will be another chance to speak with parents through other events.

5. What is our priority MEDIA outreach list? 

- We are currently trying to get a local news channel to come into our school during those days.

6. How else are we going to publicize our event?

- Hmm, I believe it will be in our monthly newsletter that gets distributed in the schools, in bridgeport news, and in yale news.

7. How will we document our event?

- Pictures will be taken and shared! Also, the local media will hopefully cover some of it!

Happy Planning Everyone!!! 

- Maysoun (Connecticut)

GUALA at The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics Back-To-School Texas Tour

On September 4, 2013, I had the opportunity to attend a town hall on Hispanic college access and completion that was organized by the The University of Texas-Pan American along with The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics (WHIEEH). WHIEEH is an initiative that engages Hispanic students, families, and community to improve education for Hispanics. This town hall was to talk about concerns that the Rio Grande Valley community had and also to highlight the efforts that have made progress in my area.

Attending this town hall was beneficial because there were so many people to network with. People that are doing the exact same thing that the GEAR UP Alumni Leadership Academy (GUALA) is trying to do for education. As a first-generation Hispanic college student this was the perfect event for me to learn about what is being done for students like me within my community and around the country. My education and the quality of it is very important to me and I am blessed to have the opportunity to attend this event but most importantly for being part of GUALA!

Keep inspiring y'all,
Maria

To learn more about The GEAR UP Alumni Leadership Academy click here.
To learn more about The White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics click here.