gear up news & events
| GEAR UP Staff Meeting | ||
GEAR UP staff share information about leading GEAR UP families through the complicated maze of financial aid information. |
GEAR UP Staff Meeting at Daley College - Daley Community College hosted the recent GEAR UP meeting, where staff met to share best practices and continue to explore college and career options for the graduating GEAR UP class. Daley president, Jorge, addressed staff Robert Evans from Truman College presented a workshop on financial aid. He walked through the steps that he goes through with students and explained the significance of each question on the financial aid form. Even though students have 18 months to complete the financial aid application, he explained that those who got theirs in early were more likely to qualify for money and work study jobs, as some of these resources are allocated on a first come basis. |
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Lorena Gasca led a workshop on understanding the award letter. Ms. Gasca says that she believes everyone who has worked with students on financial aid has seen a student who has either not taken advantage of dollars offered because they misunderstood the award letter, or ended up acquiring debt they didn’t realize they were agreeing to. Looking for what is in the award letter is as important as what is there, such as parent loan interest rate and payback obligations. Jan Alexander, the GEAR UP evaluation coordinator led a conversation about tracking student progress toward their post secondary goals. GEAR UP is tracking students’ college applications, FAFSA completion and acceptance letters. Craig from Chicago Public Schools announced that already a million dollars in scholarship money have been awarded to GEAR UP students. |
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David Sperling led a discussion on reaching our benchmarks. He and his team have created some guidelines on how GPA and ACT scores will influence college choices. They are using the information to target interactions with students. Claudia and her group visited 125 homes to meet with parents to discuss post-secondary options. Parents were given a folder with information and a senior checklist.
The day included with a parent/student panel discussion from past GEAR UP participants about what worked for them. |
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