Original Post Date: April 22, 2022

One of my favorite memories as a child was when I received a karaoke machine for Christmas. I was in my mid-teens and for me, singing was EVERYTHING. In my household, music was a big part of our everyday lives. From blasting ‘oldies but goodies’ on Saturday mornings as a pretty successful wake up call, to cranking some tunes anytime my siblings and I were doing homework. Music has always been a part of my life. So, when I received a karaoke machine I was over…

Original Post Date: April 8, 2022

One of GEAR UP’s greatest strengths is the people in our professional community. This fact informs NCCEP’s initiatives to build connections to share, learn, and problem-solve during and outside of our two annual events. 

At our most recent Capacity-Building Workshop in February 2022, participants had the option to attend four different Exploration Labs. These sessions were a departure from the usual “sage on the stage” model, instead focusing on the…

Original Post Date: March 25, 2022

I entered the educational system as a student about the same time my small, rural school was placing Apple computers in the elementary school classrooms. While my school district did not have a plethora of technology resources (we didn’t get internet in my high school until 1999), I do remember always having a brownish-gray box with a green and black screen at the back corner of every classroom. As a result, when I look back on my elementary school…

Original Post Date: February 25, 2022

During my years as the Director of Research and Evaluation responsible for three GEAR UP partnership grants in Oklahoma, I would often start my annual APR kick-off meetings with reference to Andy Williams’ Christmas classic It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year. While thinking about the APR season does not, for most GEAR UP professionals, conjure images of “marshmallows for roasting” or “caroling out in the snow”, NCCEP has a number of resources…

Original Post Date: February 11, 2022

Here in the GEAR UP community, we take student success very seriously. Making sure our students have what they need for a bright future is why we come to work each day and go above and beyond.

Yet, these efforts don’t pull from bottomless wells. To better help students, we each need to occasionally refill our own well so that we can bring our best self to support students and families.

Professional development opportunities are a great way to pause and…

Original Post Date: January 28, 2022

NCCEP’s Career & College Clubs has gone through three ACT impact studies, with the most recent study published in the fall of 2021. We wanted to examine the efficacy of the program and curriculum…basically does it really do what we say it does? And it does! I am so excited to share these positive results with the GEAR UP community.

This latest report, Examining the Efficacy of Career & College Clubs, was done in collaboration with ACT and Alliance…

Original Post Date: December 17, 2022

How much is data apart of your GEAR UP experience? How often do you discuss data with your colleagues? What role does data play in your decision making? Katie Hill, Jackie Mania, and Thomas Cech discuss these questions and more during our most recent On the Ground podcast, Prove: Give Your Data A Voice.

They also remind us, that data is for everyone! As such, data conversations must include the perspective of every team member.

When I was a GEAR UP…

Original Post Date: December 10, 2021

As prior GEAR UP coordinators we, Danielle Walker, and I, know the challenges and inspiration that you face every day. The hardest part of joining the NCCEP team was leaving our students and families. But we brought with us a unique coordinator perspective that we apply to our daily work. Over the past year NCCEP has created ample initiatives to address the professional development and support needs of GEAR UP coordinators. With the addition of multiple Stu…

Original Post Date: November 19, 2021

More than just an event. Not your typical conference experience. A truly immersive learning opportunity.

Each year at the NCCEP/GEAR UP Capacity-Building Workshop, GEAR UP professionals convene to grow, share, and find ways to better support students. You can visit this page to learn about the elements of the event (Burst Sessions, Workshops, and more).

Here, I want to share a few of reasons why the Capacity-Building Workshop is worth attending: 

1. Every…