Mekial Sherren, an 8th grade pre-algebra student at Gordo High School, holds up a sign supporting GEAR UP Alabama (Photo courtesy of UAB news)
Luke Richey – Staff Writer
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School can be expensive. Books, fees, tuition and room and board all add up to a lot of money. UAB’s School of Education has been awarded a grant that may change that college expense for some sixth and seventh grade students in lower Alabama.
Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) is the U.S. Department of Education’s grant program that funds middle and high schools with high levels of impoverished students.
The grant given to UAB is the first given by the Department of Education to Alabama since GEAR UP’s 1998 conception, and it pays out $49 million lasting until the 2020-2021 academic year.
This grant specifically services 9,300 students across 53 schools and 18 school districts in the Black Belt region of Alabama.
The Black Belt consists of 18 counties stretching from the Mississippi border to Georgia. GEAR UP Alabama adopts a cohort model – the funds follow students in sixth and seventh grades all the way from middle school through their first college years. GEAR UP Alabama supplies initiatives to increase Black Belt student representation in college.
“In my opinion, Alabama education is made up of haves and have-nots,” said Lawrence Tyson, Ph.D., associate professor of Counselor Education at UAB. “There are school systems that have lots of money and school systems who don’t have hardly any.”
Tyson said that GEAR UP levels the playing field for students across the state and provides sustainable programs for the long-term. The grant funds initiatives for high-risk poverty students to prepare for collegiate life and also aids the parents of GEAR UP students to go back and finish their degree. GEAR UP impresses sustainability on the Alabama education model by continuing programs and initiatives even after the grant expires.
In addition to the GEAR UP Alabama program, Tyson partnered with Mark Heinrich, the Chancellor of the Community College System of Alabama, to increase and ensure postsecondary education for Black Belt sixth and seventh-graders.
Heinrich agreed to provide scholarships to those students who met specific criteria to any community college in the state of Alabama.
Students who have met the requirements will be granted free tuition for at least their first two years of college. Heinrich also pledged to provide tuition for the parents of GEAR UP students.
These scholarships would aid parents in going back to continue their education if they had not been able to finish a degree before having children.
“At least two years of post-high school education waiting for you is the best incentive I can think of for GEAR UP families to become more involved,” said Tyson.
