April Wishes

BLOG POST

Guess what? This month's blog is not a blog! We are featuring an interview with Jairon Castellanos-Boteo, GEAR UP First Year College Advisor at Truckee Meadows Community College! You can read it here!

Fall Half-Day Planning

May 5th, 8:00-12:00

Once again we will be holding our half-day planning session for the upcoming fall term. This is a virtual session designed to allow for collaboration time for the fall before the school staff are off for the summer.

NV FAFSA Challenge

The deadline has passed for Nevada's inaugural FAFSA completion competition. The high school that won the $1000 competition will be announced shortly. Will it be a GEAR UP school?

NCCEP Annual Conference

July 13-16, 2025

Save the date! NCCEP's annual conference, will be held in San Francisco this coming July! The conference theme this year is, Planting Seeds. If you haven't attended a national conference before, you don't want to miss it! NCCEP always puts on a great conference with inspiring keynote speakers and an amazing array of break out sessions. There is something for everyone! Registration will be opening in just a couple of weeks.

Social Media

(For all students, parents, staff and supporters)

If you have any suggestions for our social media, let Jana or Janet know! We are open to new ideas to help grow our following! Don't forget to like and follow @gearupnv on any or all of our social media platforms! You can use the icons above to access the GEAR UP accounts. We would love for you to tag us and interact whenever possible!

Sophomore Retention Summer Bridge Programs for 2025

Here is something else that is new and exciting! In addition to our high school summer bridge programs changing this year to juniors/rising seniors and the format changing to an overnight stay on the UNLV campus, there are also big changes planned for the college freshman summer bridge by the NSHE staff as well. Normally, this service is focused on incoming college freshmen specific to each college campus. But we are switching it up to focus on current first year college students and offering them a service that will help them to prepare for their second year in college. This is in an effort to boost retention rates. This change was made because all of the NSHE institutions already provide an orientation, first-year college experiences, and other programs for incoming students. We have found that it is difficult to schedule another service that students should attend during this busy time. Since this is a service that moves into new territory, the team is sharing ideas to help each other plan and provide the necessary information for their particular students.

Welcome the Team!

We would like to welcome Elana Ruminski as the new CSN First Year College Advisor! Originally from Washington state, she attended UNLV where she majored in Anthropology and earned her bachelor's degree. Afterward, she returned to Washington and worked as an Americorps volunteer and assisted students with their application and enrollment process at Tacoma Community College. Elana loves good food, traveling, her dogs, swimming and water polo, as well as spending time with her loved ones.

We are happy to have you on the team, Elana!

So Long Kinsey!

While we are welcoming a new staff member, we also have to say good-bye to one. Kinsey Minter, First Year College Advisor at UNR will be leaving the program at the end of the month. Kinsey joined the GEAR UP team almost two years ago. In that time, she has represented UNR well and has been a genuinely nice colleague to work with at each activity or event. On behalf of the program, we wish you lots of success wherever your future path takes you, Kinsey! Thank you for all of your work for our students.

May Awareness Calendars