GEAR UP Success Stories |
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Angela M. is going to college. She has been offered an athletic scholar-ship to Northern Illinois University and, as long as she can keep her B+ average, she can start practicing with the NIU basketball team over the summer and on weekends starting in 2010.
So Angela has a plan for college, but she almost never made it to high school. Three weeks before she was due to start 9th grade, she was shot by a gang member. Two years later, in the summer of 2009, she shared the stage with GEAR UP students from “Maine to Yakima” (Washington) as one of 30 selected participants in the NCCEP Youth Leadership Summit in San Francisco.
Angela’s journey may represent traveling from the lowest to the highest point of a child’s road towards college. She mentioned at the Summit, “my group presented about Self-Determination. There are some kids out there that don’t have family they can count on. They might not have a lot of help. But you can rely on anyone.” Angela relies on her mother Lucy (above left), her friends, community, and the GEAR UP staff at her school.
“I went on every college visit GEAR UP had; NIU, UIC, Loyola. I didn’t think I had a choice (before GEAR UP). They tell you details about going to college; applications, financial aid and FAFSA. I tell other kids to go to at least one. It’s a privilege to go on these trips.” Angela has a great relationship with Site Liaison Darlene Pearlstein, who recommended her for the Youth Summit, speaks regularly with her Postsecondary Coach, and took ad-vantage of the GEAR UP referral to Babbage Net School, an individualized computer tutoring program. “The more help the better. I can’t just depend on one person to give me help.”
With help from GEAR UP, Angela and her family have a plan to make college real. She is just one of the 21,774 Chicago GEAR UP Alliance students, their parents, teachers, and school and district staff with whom we worked in the past two years to improve student academic performance and increase postsecondary awareness. The Chicago GEAR UP Alliance (CGUA) is a partnership of seven local postsecondary institutions: North-eastern Illinois University (fiscal agent), DePaul University, Loyola University, National Louis University, Roosevelt University, Truman College (Chicago City Colleges), and the University of Chicago. The broad-based alliance permits CGUA to leverage resources to create and institutionalize innovative and supportive systems to identify and fill gaps in the educational pipeline for the benefit of schools, communities and families.
From the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance Bi-Annual Report, |
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