‘W.Va. GEAR UP’ Provides $1 million+ to Schools across 10 Districts

November 2009

Some schools will have extra help preparing their students for college and career training, thanks to a more than $1 million allocation from West Virginia GEAR UP. The money will fund college tours, classroom technology upgrades and tutoring and counseling programs for students and parents within ten county school districts.

West Virginia GEAR UP is a six-year federal grant aimed at “gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs.” Simply put, the GEAR UP program is designed to help students plan, apply and pay for training beyond high school.

The $1 million is to be spent during the 2009-2010 school year, and is divided among 49 schools based on the number of GEAR UP students each school serves. Program requirements define West Virginia GEAR UP students as those in the 11th or 12th grade. Additionally, students in the class of 2014 are considered to be part of the West Virginia GEAR UP cohort, and those students will receive GEAR UP services and support from now until their graduation.

“WV GEAR UP is designed to benefit all of our 11th and 12th graders, from fall 2008 to spring 2014,” Dr. Adam Green, Director of West Virginia GEAR UP and P-20 Initiatives, said. “We also work closely with the class of 2014 — this year’s eighth graders — so that we can monitor the effectiveness of our efforts across a six-year span. Other students in the junior high and high school may also receive support through the “overflow effect” — because they may be eligible to attend events along with our GEAR UP students, and of course technology purchased for classrooms will remain in the classroom long after the GEAR UP students are gone.”

West Virginia GEAR UP’s 49 schools are located throughout Boone, Clay, Lincoln, McDowell, Mingo, Summers, Roane, Webster, Wirt and Wyoming counties. Additional funds will be awarded to those ten counties each year throughout the life of the grant, which is now in its second year. The

West Virginia GEAR UP program is housed under the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission (Commission). The Commission is the coordinating body for the state’s four-year public colleges and universities, and is responsible for developing, establishing and overseeing the implementation of a public policy agenda for the institutions.

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Additional Information and Resources

To download news releases that reflect individual county allocations, click here.
To view the online media kit for this story, click here.