Welcome Back to School!

BLOG POST

This month's blog is not a blog! We will be starting a new feature where we will post either a blog or an interview - the choice is up to our monthly contributor. This month we have an interview with Ana Hernandez-Wong, GEAR UP Communications Specialist with the Nevada of System of Higher Education and an undergraduate student at UNR! You can read it here!

Year 6 Begins!

August is not just back to school time, it is also the end of the current grant year and the beginning of the new grant year. Year 6 will officially begin on August 23, 2024!

New NSHE Intro Events!

September/October

NSHE will be trying new intro events for Year 6! What was formerly the NSHE College and Scholarship Fairs will become more of a "block party" style event in the hopes of attracting more students and parents to attend. We will still be hosting our scholarship guests too! Stay tuned for more information as these exciting new events are planned!

NDE Staff Training

Almost the entire GEAR UP NV team assembled in early August on the TMCC Pennington Applied Technology Center campus. For two days we reviewed various things such as the brand and logo use requirements, the current data on our various metrics, and the timeline for applying to the next grant. Of course, we had a lot of collaboration time as well and a tour of the amazing facility! It was a nice opportunity to see everyone again and prepare for the new grant year.

GEAR UP West

October 27-29

GEAR UP West this year will be held in Albuquerque, NM! Registration is already open! Visit: https://go.wsuprofed.com/website/72800/home/

Once GEAR UP, Always GEAR UP!

One very exciting thing about going to DC is we were able to see a few GEAR UP colleagues from other states and programs as well as a few former GEAR UP Nevada colleagues that now live in that area or came back to participate in the conference. In the photos below, you will see Dr. Daniel Villanueva who was the former NSHE Director of Programming & Outreach (just before Janet) and Emily Crawford and Nick Mathews, both former GEAR UP students and NSHE GEAR UP Ambassadors with the last grant cycle. Emily also went on to work at NCCEP for few years after leaving UNR. It was wonderful to see the GEAR UP connections and support continue! Did you notice, Daniel is wearing a GEAR UP Nevada polo shirt?

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!

Photos from Washington DC!

NCCEP National Conference Recap

The Nevada GEAR UP Team was well represented this year at the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference in Washington, DC this summer. It was a special year as the GEAR UP nation celebrated their 25th anniversary! Staff attended workshops on grant management, mental health, career exploration, and many more impactful topics. We also had presentations from our talented team with program partners. Janet Stake presented with MAD-learn on app development, Jana Burd and Jairon Castellanos-Boteo presented with Student Success Agency on student engagement, and Jana also presented with UNLV GEAR UP and TRIO Educational Talent Search on cross-grant program collaboration. From learning to networking, NCCEP once again hosted a wonderful annual conference and the Nevada GEAR UP team had great experiences!

SSA Summer Bridge Program

This year, NDE decided to try something new for our summer bridge programming. Last month, 70 Nevada GEAR UP students attended the Student Success Agency Summer Camp with Arizona GEAR UP in Prescott, AZ. Over three days, SSA hosted over 100 high school juniors & seniors for an eventful and collaborative summer camp, joining students from 10 different schools across both programs. Students were put into teams and competed in minute-to-win-it games and relay races, while also attending breakout sessions and workshops. From keynote speakers to guest presenters, students learned about self-care, personality strengths, purpose exploration, personal development, teamwork, camp reflection, and so much more! Huge shout out to the SSA and camp team on a successful and memorable 2024 summer camp! Special thanks to Bobby Holder and Nevada GEAR UP alum Emily Crawford for traveling to camp just to speak to the students about the GEAR UP Alumni Association. We are so excited and can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year!

Summer Camps

It has been a very busy summer at Nevada GEAR UP. Not only did we have a large contingent at the national conference as well as the SSA Summer Bridge program but we also continued our regular sponsorship of student attending the UNLV Summer STEM Camp which is hosted by UNLV's College of Engineering. In addition, we had our regular ASPIRE summer program which this year included some dual enrollment courses for students. And of course, DFS also continued their highly successful summer programming too. Our FYCAs are following up with incoming freshmen to help them transition to college life. All in all, even though the summer is not as hectic as the fall and spring terms, there is a lot of effort and progress happening!

So Long Clare!

During the recent NDE training, it was announced that Clare Cerda, GEAR UP Program Officer, resigned effective August 16th to pursue her own business. We all know Clare is also a photographer and she has decided to make the leap into doing it full time. We are sorry to see you go, Clare but we wish you the best of luck in your new endeavor! Thanks for all of the help you have given the GEAR UP program and staff over the last few years!

We promise not to call you too much!!

September Awareness Calendars and Photos from the Summer Bridge Program!