The effort to focus Sweet Home junior high and high school students’ attention on the importance of going to college is rising to new levels, according to its coordinantor.
Kristen Adams, who is heading the GEAR UP program, said new wrinkles this year include wearing college gear one day a week and an engineering camp for eighth-graders this summer at Oregon State University.
The Gear Up program, which encourages junior high school students to pursue a college education, is in its second year, along with its companion ASPIRE program, which provided mentoring last year aimed at focusing juniors on college.
Adams said the goal this year is to take the emphasis community-wide.
One of the more visible new wrinkles is the College T-Shirt Tuesdays, in which teachers, staffers and students at the high school wear college T-shirts and sweatshirts to school. Jeans are allowed too.
“It’s just a gentle reminder of post-secondary options,” Adams said.
She said Junior Chamber of Commerce members have taken up the challenge of visiting local businesses with information packets, encouraging them to participate. So far, two local firms have committed, she said.
She said organizers got the idea from the Oregon University System’s College Spirit Fridays, when campus populations wear their college colors.
“We chose Tuesday because it’s set aside for Husky Spirit,” she said.
Adams said she hopes to see the college gear celebration extend all the way down to the grade schools.
“Everybody got to where they are through education of some sort or another,” she said. “They know it’s important. I think that’s the philosophy I’m trying to get out €“ that Sweet Home values education.”
In addition to the college gear, Adams said Sweet Home eighth-grade students are getting a chance to participate in an engineering camp that’s being called E-Camp.
She said that OSU is enthusiastic about putting on the camp after holding an ocean science camp for seventh-graders last year.
“OSU has been very receptive to our students,” she said. “They went back to get another grant from the Oregon University System to do the same thing.
The engineering camp will be project-based and will be tightly tied to the curriculum the students are studying this year at the junior high.
“We have to create a desire for kids,” Adams said. “They have to make the connection as to why it’s important to go to school.
If they make that connection to a profession they might love, and they realize that education is important, that might cause the light bulb to go on as to why college is important for them. At this age level, we’re just trying to expose them to different careers that will create that desire.
“The whole effort behind Gear Up is to change our culture, to promote education beyond high school,” she said.
Studies show that 92 percent of middle schoolers aspire to go to college. By the time they are in 10th grade, the number drops to 80 percent. Nationally, only 68 percent of high school students graduate on time and only 6 percent of students from low- income families have a college degree by age 24.
“Aspirations are not meeting reality,” Adams said. “The number one reason students continue with postsecondary education is because they know that they need a college degree (or some sort of certificate) for the jobs that interest them. Many of our students, however, have no ambition to continue their education because they have no idea what they want to do with their life.
“GEAR UP gives them a head start with career exploration, lifestyle choices, and an understanding of postsecondary options.
It’s an opportunity for them to really evaluate what they like and don’t like in life and how to formulate that into an educational/professional journey that will give them the lifestyle they want and deserve.”
Adams said that those efforts include the GEAR UP club at the seventh-grade level and a GEAR UP class embedded into the curriculum at the eighth-grade level.
High school juniors and seniors are getting postsecondary mentoring, scholarship and financial aid education as well as college and career exploration opportunities, she said.
She said another Gear Up goal is to get parents involved in helping their children think about attending college.
Adams is working on a program she calls “Parent University” that would include a series of workshops in which parents would be able to learn about college admissions, financial aid and how to help their student make the jump to post-secondary options.
She said many have expressed interest.
“I’ve had a lot of parents say ‘Hey, I don’t want this to be entirely the school’s responsibility,'” Adams said. “‘I want to be involved too. I just don’t know where to begin.'”
For more information on Gear Up or the College T-Shirt Tuesday program, contact Adams at (541) 367-7177 or e-mail her at [email protected].