Welcome to July!

July is the heart of summer, where the days are long, the iced coffee is essential, and the work we do continues to shine just as brightly as the sun. As we dive into this month, we know that for many of our recent graduates, their journey beyond high school is heating up too. Whether they’re exploring college, career training, or the ever-evolving job market, your guidance and support has been the steady breeze they needed in what can feel like a whirlwind. So grab your sunscreen and your favorite GEAR UP branded items — we’ve got Year 7 ahead full of impact, inspiration, and certainly a little fun along the way!!

"The essence of America, that which really unites us, is not ethnicity, nationality, or religion. It is an idea, and what an idea it is - that you can come from humble circumstances and do great things." ~ Condoleezza Rice

BLOG POST

Our staff interviews have been very popular! This month we are featuring an interview with Jana Burd, GEAR UP College Coordinator at Nevada System of Higher Education! You can read it here!

Out-of-State Campus Tour Trip!

August 5th-8th

We will be having our first ever out-of-state campus tour trip! Thanks to available funding from ASPIRE, we will take approximately 30 students and 5 staff members, on an all expenses paid tour of five AZ colleges. Everywhere from Pima Community College to Emory-Riddle Aeronautical University; Tucson to Flagstaff! Students will be picked up at the CCSD schools. It is sure to be a great trip! For more information, contact Mario Rodriguez, mario.rodriguez1@unlv.edu.

NDE Fall Training

August 12 & 13

Save-the-Date! We are kicking off Year 7 in our usual way - by meeting in Reno for NDE training. We are trying to reserve the TMCC Edison campus again but this is tentative at the moment. We will be meeting our new team members during this time and we will have another Dependable Strengths session led by Jana. This session will count as our fall NDE professional development session.

National GEAR UP Week

September 22-26

This year, National GEAR UP Week will be held the week of September 22nd. This is a great time to plan extra special events. This year, the theme from the annual conference will be carried through GEAR UP week as well. The theme is: Planting Seeds, Growing a Nation.

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!

More photos from the Annual Conference!

Planting Seeds at the NCCEP Annual Conference!

As this newsletter is hitting your inbox, the annual NCCEP GEAR UP Conference is wrapping up. Several team members spent the last few days in San Francisco attending the conference. This was the first GEAR UP conference for some of our newest staff members, Jeannine Warner, Mario Rodriguez, Arlene Herrara, Kaiti Gentry, and Elana Ruminski and not so new staff member, Josh Loftis!

As usual, NCCEP planned for an amazing conference that included three notable keynote speakers. This year featured speakers were planting seeds of opportunity with Dr. Christopher Emdin; planting seeds of leadership with filmmaker Brett Culp; and finally, planting seeds of wonder with author Monica Parker. Of course there were also a plethora of interesting breakout sessions to inspire plans for our program and other fun activities planned throughout the conference. One unexpected twist, Jana Burd was called in as a substitute presenter when one of her Student Engagement Committee colleagues could not travel. She assisted the Communications Advisory Committee in presenting the Discussion Lab: How to Talk About GEAR UP. Way to go, Jana!

Next year - Washington, DC!

Welcome Mario!

We are pleased to welcome Mario Rodriguez to the GEAR UP team! Mario is the new Interim Director of the ASPIRE program. Mario has worked in assorted areas in student and academic services at a variety of institutions around the country, finally settling in at UNLV in 2024 as the Assistant Director of Multicultural and STEM Pipelines. In this role, he has a lot of connections to STEM programs which is perfect for ASPIRE!

Welcome to GEAR UP, Mario!!

So Long Kat!

We have a very bittersweet announcement in that our very busy and dedicated First Year College Advisor at UNLV, Kat Burdick, has accepted a new position at UNLV. Kat will be moving into the purchasing and contracts office where we are sure she will impress her new colleagues. Kat has been with the program for almost 4 years and most assuredly will be missed by the whole team.

Wishing you the best of luck as you start your new position, Kat! We will miss you more than you probably know!

Farewell to Arian!

Nooo! Say it isn't so!

Yes, yes, it is time to wish Arian Katsimbras at NDE, a fond farewell as he has been assigned to a different project. He is not going far though as he will still be with NDE, just not the GEAR UP program. Not to worry, we will have two new Educational Programs Professionals joining the GEAR UP NV team. Stay tuned for those introductions!

Thanks for all you have done to keep the ship steering in the right direction, Arian! Lot's of luck in your new role! You will be missed!

August Awareness Calendar and Photos from the NCCEP Annual Conference!

If not otherwise noted, questions regarding content in this Digest should be directed to:

Janet Stake, NSHE GEAR UP Director, Programming and Outreach

jstake@nshe.nevada.edu

Funded by USDE Nevada State GEAR UP Grant #P334S190009