California GEAR UP e-Newsletter

A Model Project in Elk Grove Unified School District

The California GEAR UP/Valley High School Collaboration began in 2005 with students at Jackman Middle School. This model project offers academic support and special programming for students, and provides information and resources to the adult school community: families, teachers, counselors and administrators.  These photographs are of school site events supported by the Collaborative.  Visit our website to learn more about this exciting and unique collaboration!

Many middle schools came to the Technical Assistance workshops on October 2 at Embassy Suites Hotel, Walnut Creek, and on October 8 at the Pasadena Hilton to learn more about California GEAR UP and their resources and opportunities. School representatives were excited by and engaged in the presentations by colleagues from the Continuing Sustainability Project schools of GEAR UP.

Evaluation comments about what was most useful and exciting about GEAR UP included the following:

• The parent involvement component—I think we have parents searching for something like this
• Using the SSAR form for planning and the whole school collaborating
• Looks like a quality group to work with and everything aligns with best practices and where we are headed
• Enjoyed hearing the stories/experiences of schools going through the process
• Creating a “college-bound” culture at my school
• Website information...creating a college corner...promoting more college awareness

Blaze Farrar provides support to the GEAR UP team as Administrative Assistant in the Oakland office since September 2007. In addition to being the event coordinator, she serves as a communications hub between school leadership, Regional Coordinators and Program Managers and the Business Network Initiative.

She received a Bachelor of Arts degree in History with a minor in Communication from Rockford College, Illinois, and is currently a candidate for a Masters in Business Administration at Holy Names University in Oakland. While in Illinois, she was a Director of Marketing & Sales and a Special Assistant to the President of Rockford College. She and her husband, Michael Miller, now reside in Oakland.

For fun, she enjoys hiking, walking around Lake Merritt, biking, cooking locally grown produce, learning to knit, and exploring the nooks and crannies of “off the beaten track” spots in the Bay Area.

Sean Brennan joined the California GEAR UP staff in July 2008 as Regional Coordinator. As a former Project Coordinator at Marshall High School in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), Sean adds a great wealth of educational experiences to the team. In addition to being an elementary teacher for a year in Ireland and a middle school teacher in Wisconsin, he taught five years in special education in LAUSD. He has also been a consultant for child psychiatry clinics in Los Angeles.

Sean received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point and his Master of Arts in Public Policy and Administration from California Lutheran University. He also was a Fulbright Memorial Fund Scholar in Japan in 2006. Currently he resides in San Francisco.

California GEAR UP provides 288 Educational Trust Awards to middle school students at current GEAR UP schools throughout California each year. GEAR UP does not find out where these students are until they have entered into a post-secondary organization and have claimed their award. Staff recognized that enrollment in college provides an opportunity to learn more about the students that have received an Educational Trust Award.

This summer, 753 surveys were sent to Educational Trust Awardees who had completed their first year in a post-secondary institution. GEAR UP is learning about their progress, specifically what institution they enrolled in, what their intended major is, future career plans, and how receiving an Educational Trust Award from California GEAR UP in middle school made it possible to continue to pursue their educational dreams.

Each year GEAR UP middle schools select students for Educational Trust Awards, a "scholarship" valued at $2,000 plus interest and available upon college enrollment. The process for selection at many schools usually includes an essay written by the student about their future career goals and why going to college is important. The following selections, taken from student applications, show how meaningful this GEAR UP resource is to each of them.