Hi GEAR UP Community!

I am Casey Weld and we are the GEAR UP Alumni Association (GUAA)! Founded in Los Angeles from alumni, staff, and partners of GEAR UP 4 LA (Lois Bramwell Janicia Centeno-Castillo), we aim to be what NCCEP is to our grants, to all of our alumni. Surely, all of you have thought at one point, “what happens to our students after the life of the grant?” While efforts to organize and mobilize alumni in the past have been relatively successful, we decided to change up the approach a little bit to see if we can build a self-sustaining alumni association and network across the country. For us, that meant starting locally in our community of Los Angeles to develop scalable programming that we could eventually use as a model for all GEAR UP alumni nationwide.

After working with students in their first and second years, what some GEAR UP 4 LA staff noticed is that the needs of GEAR UP students and alumni didn’t end as soon as they stepped foot on campus. Although our grants work tirelessly to equip our students with the tools and resilience needed to persevere through higher education degrees, some obstacles are inevitable. From Summer Melt, to lack of guidance, many alumni unfortunately don’t make it across the finish line – so we decided to try to change that!

We held our first formal meeting of alumni on August 3rd, 2019 to put all of our heads together and really think about what supports and services could fill in the need gaps of GU alums. From there we ran with the ideas and started outlining some core programming pillars that could be difference-makers, and landed on:

• mentorship

• professional and career development

• Targeted, obstacle-based scholarships.

With a global pandemic halting our ability to organize in person, we did what all GEAR UP programs and alumni always do: adapt! We started holding virtual alumni gatherings and actually found that video conferencing allowed us to reach more alumni and really set this organization in motion. By August 2020, we had a Board of our organization - which was really just a glorified club at the time - that consisted of 7 GU alumni (5 from the class of 2011, and 2 from the class of 2017), 2 GEAR UP staff, and 1 partner who works with grants across the country.

Through surveying the alumni that we were all able to get in touch with, we launched a pilot of our mentorship program from the 2020-2021 school year. With over 130 alumni signing up to mentor first-year college students (also GU alumni) we were able to pair up just under 60 alumni with each other. Some matches were perfect (same school, same major), and some matches were more unconventional, but the support remained the same – having someone who was in their same shoes support first-year students through an incredibly tumultuous year, gave those first-year students the comfort and confidence to persist onto the second semester and their next year at a college or university.

As we organized, planned, and saw our vision start to take shape through the programming we developed, we ended up deciding to become our own nonprofit organization. This gave us the ability to eventually fulfill our dream of disbursing scholarships directly to the countless deserving GEAR UP alumni who just need a little help. By putting together what we all could contribute, we were able to fully incorporate as the GEAR UP Alumni Association and are currently awaiting our 501(c)(3) approval from the IRS.

As this school year comes to an end, the work is just starting for the GEAR UP Alumni Association. In under 2 years, we’ve gone from a mere idea to now elevating GU alumni voices to the highest stage! If you want to learn more about our story and how we got to where we are today, we encourage you to come to our session this July at the NCCEP/GEAR UP Virtual Annual Conference. We’re presenting on July 21st from 4:30-5:30pm EST with the session title, “Building and Mobilizing an Alumni Community to Ensure Sustainability.” We look forward to seeing you all there to connect and continue to grow this movement together!

I am going to hand over the virtual mic to GEAR UP alum and esteemed GEAR UP Alumni Association Board President, Blandina Flores:

Before graduating from UC Davis in 2016, I remember googling GEAR UP and was directed to the GEAR UP 4 LA website. While browsing through the website, I saw the GEAR UP Alumni tab and completed the form displayed for alumni and hoped to hear how I can support and give back. June 04, 2019 I received an Instagram message from William Ruiz, a classmate of mine from high school who was currently working for the GEAR UP 4 LA grant. William reached out to inform me that GEAR UP 4 LA is trying to put together a sustainable GEAR UP Alumni network that will benefit both current and former alumni. So many memories came into my mind after I read the message. I always credited GEAR UP’s counselors and coordinators for guiding me into the right path towards my educational journey. I attended a GEAR UP 4 LA Alumni Conference and from that point I knew I had to take part in this project! I would begin to attend meetings to plan out how to outreach to alumni, and that is how I became the Outreach Committee Lead. 

During the summer of 2020, A few of us began to meet via zoom every weekend and worked on the GUAA mission, vision, and values. As we began to plan, there were tasks that needed to be completed, I had extra time on my hands due to the Stay-at-Home orders and I began to volunteer as much as I can to help get things done. When constructing our Board, we talked about having executive board positions. I decided to run for Board President and on September 18, 2020, I was elected as Board President of the GEAR UP Alumni Association. 

As a Latina and first-generation college student, I know the impact that GUAA can make to our GEAR UP Alumni as the GEAR UP grants paved our educational career. As we continue to build a GEAR UP alumni network, we know many opportunities will be opening for our alumni. We will be the support system for GEAR UP Alumni as GEAR UP was for us!       

We hope you enjoy the video we put together to assist NCCEP and CEF in their federal advocacy initiatives.