A competitive grant proposal written by UW’s Student Educational Opportunity department has secured $24 million in funding for GEAR UP Wyoming, a statewide program that assists low-income students in achieving a quality education.
Being a competitive grant, these U.S. Department of Education funds are far from guaranteed. They were awarded only after the proposal demonstrated a basis of need for students and that Wyoming’s program had the merit to be worthy of them.
“This funding provides another stepping-stone toward UW’s goal of increasing postsecondary degree attainment rates among disadvantaged students in Wyoming,” President Laurie Nichols stated in her weekly Monday Morning email. “Congratulations to all our SEO staff and particularly those who developed the grant proposal.”
The SEO department houses programs such as GEAR UP and TRIO (which is not an acronym, referring instead to the original three programs created by the Higher Education Act in 1968) that provide services and assistance to students in Wyoming.
“They’re all intended to help under-represented students prepare for, access and complete college,” Associate Director Michael Wade said. “GEAR UP’s mission is to serve seventh through 12th graders across the state, who are low income, to prepare for college entry and help them be successful in college. And GEAR UP does now provide freshman year services to first-year students in college.”
Wade grew up in Wyoming, graduating with a Ph.D. from UW and departing to the west coast before returning and applying for a position with SEO to bring his expertise to the aid of Wyoming students.
“When I lived here, I couldn’t wait to get the hell out—and then the longer I was away, the more I appreciated it and wanted to come back,” Wade said. “I was a first-generation student myself—so I really identify with and kind of from a social justice standpoint, really believe in what our programs do, I’ve seen the positive outcomes and the way they help out our students.”
The $24 million grant for GEAR UP Wyoming will be allotted across seven years and enables services in 117 schools state-wide that help educate students about education. As students approach and enter college, the program is especially valuable to help students understand the “bureaucratic intricacies” of applying to colleges and for financial aid, said Mel Own, senior project coordinator in GEAR UP’s UW office.
“We provide a broad range of preparatory services—advising, academic counseling, we help with mentoring, ACT preparation, tutoring services, so it varies,” Owen said. “It’s really focused on helping students graduate from high school and then apply and be accepted into college.”
One of the students impacted by GEAR UP is Claudia Vanessa Hernandez Marquez, who is the first of her family to graduate high school and is set to graduate from UW with a bachelor’s in sociology, with a minor in gender and women’s studies. Along with working as a part-time aide at Student Disability Services, Marquez now works as a Student Success Leader for GEAR UP in the SEO department.
“My family members and my sisters all dropped out at an early age and become mothers and got married, which is what I saw going for myself too,” Marquez said. “In my head it was like, ‘if they can’t do it, what makes me think I can do it’? I didn’t foresee anything else—I didn’t think that education and getting my high school diploma, and my bachelor’s in three weeks now, would be a possibility.”
GEAR UP continues to help connect students like Marquez to the wide range of opportunities that exist for them to continue their education and succeed.
