GEAR UP Iowa is excited to celebrate National GEAR UP Week Sept. 22-26 as thousands of students, parents, teachers and college access professionals recognize GEAR UP and its success in removing barriers to postsecondary education and providing students with multiple pathways to postsecondary success.
GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs and is a federally funded program administered by the Iowa Department of Education’s Bureau of Iowa College Aid. Through partnerships with local school districts, students and their families receive services to prepare them academically, financially and inspirationally to enroll and succeed in postsecondary education or career training.
National GEAR UP Week highlights more than a quarter century of the national program’s rich legacy of supporting underserved students in preparing, enrolling and completing educational opportunities beyond high school. This year’s National GEAR UP Week is dubbed ‘Planting Seeds, Growing a Nation’ to highlight GEAR UP’s history of transforming the lives of students, families and communities across the nation. GEAR UP partners and practitioners are encouraged to engage with local leaders and members of the community to champion the impact that GEAR UP has in creating successful postsecondary pathways for students.
For National GEAR UP Week, Iowa plans to showcase successes the program has achieved since its inception in 2008 on social media. Additionally, staff also collaborated with GEAR UP Iowa partners to create a week full of events that continue to expose students to the transformative opportunities that postsecondary education and training creates for them, their families and their communities.
“Every year we are amazed and inspired by the passion and creativity of our GEAR UP Iowa partners in celebrating National GEAR UP Week,” said GEAR UP Iowa Coordinator Amber Miller. “This is a special week to highlight the impact of GEAR UP Iowa and its ability to ensure that all students have the opportunity, skills and access to pursue their career goals.”
GEAR UP Iowa staff asked that all partner schools and districts host at least one college and career preparation activity during GEAR UP Week to engage and inspire students to think about and plan for their future careers.
Additionally, GEAR UP Iowa is sponsoring college and career site visits throughout the week to expose students to potential future educational and career opportunities.
Since the program’s inception in Iowa, it has directly impacted more than 30,000 students in the 19 communities that have hosted GEAR UP Iowa cohorts. Additionally, GEAR UP Iowa has awarded over $34 million in scholarship funds to those students to pursue postsecondary education.
GEAR UP Iowa focuses on student achievement by supporting middle school and high school programs, students and families, and creating a seamless transition to postsecondary education for students and families. In 2020, 88 percent of GEAR UP Iowa graduates had plans to complete a two-year or four-year degree program or other postsecondary training and education. GEAR UP Iowa students have also demonstrated higher rates of attendance, reading and math proficiency, increased standardized entrance exam scores and Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion.
The current GEAR UP Iowa 3.0 cohort and programming is offered in 20 schools across 13 partner districts serving more than 7,500 members of the class of 2029.
Last year, GEAR UP Iowa provided nearly 3 million minutes of academic assistance to students and more than 1.6 million minutes of college and career exposure.
More information on GEAR UP Iowa is available on the Department’s GEAR UP Iowa webpage.