The GEAR UP Program which is an acronym for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program is a competitive grant program that works with High School Juniors and Seniors to prepare to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.
During the month of November, the GEAR UP Program held a few informative events for High School Seniors and their parents. Brandon Flores, Director explains further, “Last month we had a few FAFSA completion nights, if you’re not aware of what FAFSA is, its Financial Aid for seniors who are planning on going to college next year to help them out. We also had the Utah College Application Week that we helped out at some of our high schools.” The attendance at the events was record making compared to years past including parent participation. Students who were unable to attend the events but plan on going to college need to get in contact with their GEAR UP Advisor at their high schools.
GEAR UP has a busy spring calendar already scheduled and will offer a great opportunity for students to visit colleges. “We’ll be taking student to Utah State University up in Logan, we’ll be taking students on a field trip to Weber State and then we’ll also be taking students on a field trip to Colorado Mesa University,” said Flores. This is an chance to see what programs are offered at other colleges besides our local secondary institution.
The final year of high school is a bit overwhelming for students and GEAR UP makes the overall process to prepare for college easy. “When I’m advising students, especially seniors I go over four college milestones. The first college milestone is the ACT, now most seniors have taken the ACT by this point. What that does is it helps them with the admissions process also can help students get academic scholarships and other scholarships as well, so the ACT is the first milestone,” stated Flores.
The second milestone is the FAFSA which stands for Free Application for Federal Student Aid. It is important for all students to apply because these programs provide grants, loans, and work-study funds to students attending college or a career school.
“The third milestone is the actually college applications. So, to apply for admissions to whatever college you are interested in going to and you can apply for as many colleges as you want,” said Flores. Students should try to apply to at least three, their dream school, a match school which is based on current academic standing and desired major and finally, your safety school which is the student’s back up plan if the other two colleges don’t work out.
The GEAR UP program with its mentors and advisors can help students get started its never too late to start the application process. If students or parents have questions about the program they can contact the GEAR UP office at 613-5648 and/or visit the office located in the Jennifer Leavitt Student Center on the campus of USU-Eastern.