The concurrent sessions at the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference are the backbone of the event. They provide vital learning and professional development opportunities for college access professionals across the country. GEAR UP is a community of practice and it requires constant learning from one another, so we encourage everyone to submit a proposal to present. I have learned a lot in my three years managing the proposal process, and I want to share some meaningful tips with you on how to submit…

Hi everyone my name is Jordan Passey and I will be participating in a graduate fellowship this fall semester with NCCEP here in Washington, D.C.  I am very excited for this opportunity to learn and be a part of the team that played an influential role in my decision to pursue a degree and future career in Higher Education.

I am currently a second-year Master’s student in the Educational Leadership and Policy program, with an emphasis in Higher Education at the University of Utah.  I first got…

Late last week, the U.S. Department of Education (ED) notified members of Congress that 7 new State GEAR UP awards totaling just over $30 million were made from the 2019 GEAR UP competition. We understand that the Grant Award Notifications have been sent to the award winners, but that a press release is not forthcoming (you’ll note ED is no longer providing press releases for the majority of programs making new awards). The project abstracts should be posted shortly to the ED website.  

The GEAR…

As promised, we are ecstatic to share the posters from this year's conference! We hope these will serve as a reminder that you are part of a national movement to make a real difference in the lives of youth.

To help inspire you as you prepare for this academic year, please use the five posters (attached to this post) in your offices, schools, and communities.

Hope. Purpose. Resiliency. Connection. Excellence.

Last Week, finishing out National Financial Capability Month, April Bell and I attended a special convening hosted by the U.S. Department of Education titled “Rethinking Financial Literacy Education: Foundations for Lifelong Financial Capability.”  We gained insight into valuable resources and recently published initiatives such as the You for Youth K-12 Financial Literacy Click & Go Course and the myStudentAid mobile application. We also attended beneficial sessions with topics such as…

As you know, each GEAR UP grant must submit an Annual Performance Report (APR) to the U.S. Department of Education (ED), showing efforts made towards GEAR UP goals and missions. Despite our best efforts throughout the years, obtaining up-to-date facts and figures on our GEAR UP programs from ED remains a challenge. This is detrimental to our advocacy efforts, as the success of your programs contributes to our conversations on Capitol Hill. In recent years, our advocacy efforts have continued to…

Funded since 1999, Region One ESC has been the recipient of five GEAR UP Partnership grants from the United States Department of Education. Through this funding, GEAR UP has impacted over 30,000 students and their families in Deep South Texas. The primary goal of GEAR UP is to increase the number of targeted students who enter and succeed in post-secondary environments. This goal is supported by a plan that encompasses academic systemic reform.

We are extremely proud of the successes of our…

As we shared on our social media channels yesterday, the White House released their proposed FY 2019 budget, which calls for the elimination of GEAR UP. I’d like to address three topics in this communication: (1) what the White House budget is proposing; (2) our forecast on how Congress will react to the proposal; and (3) some early thoughts on our next steps. While we were all away at the Capacity-Building Workshop, there were many government relations developments that we’ll tackle in more…