Five years after starting their first million-dollar program, staff members at Syracuse University are starting all over again, this time with almost double the number of participants and more than double the millions of dollars involved.

Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs was designed to encourage middle and high school students to pursue a college education. It received a federal grant of $567,000 last week to start a six-year program with the Syracuse City School District, a program whose overall budget should total $3.4 million once the program is completed.

‘We’re very, very excited about what we were awarded because it was the most in New York state,’ said Lena Kochian, director of SU’s GEAR UP, which received more than double the funding from the $21 million given to 11 other academic organizations in New York. ‘We had some confidence with the results we delivered in the past five years.’

The funding is a large increase from the $1.5 million grant awarded to the program in 2000, when the program launched, according to state estimates.

While part of the increase comes from the success of the program, it also stems from an expansion of who SU’s GEAR UP will offer its programming to. The program originally worked with 1,100 children at eight city schools, but will now coordinate 1,800 children from all 16 schools in the Syracuse City School District, according to officials with New York state and SU.

While the extra children mean extra work, Kochian said she is glad to be collaborating with the entire school district instead of having to donate all the resources to only a selection of schools.

‘It’s like ‘Sophie’s Choice,’ you know, who do you pick?’ Kochian said. ‘We just don’t see that as a good way to do business.’

GEAR UP just finished a five-year program, which started in 2000 with eighth-graders at six local middle schools, according to a five-year SU GEAR UP report. The program started by introducing students to the programs GEAR UP would offer and by purchasing 32 laptops and $29,800 worth of supplies and equipment for Henninger and Fowler high schools, the destinations of the students from the six middle schools.

The program then got more involved as GEAR UP offered options ranging from ACT/SAT preparation; summer classes for both high school and college credit at Syracuse University, Onondaga Community College and Le Moyne College; a zoology course at the Rosamond Gifford Zoo; a media campaign at the Clear Channel office in Syracuse and after-school help in math, English, social studies and other subjects, according to the report.

‘The students were very enthusiastic about taking classes on our campus,’ said Linda M. LeMura, dean of arts and sciences at Le Moyne College, who helped coordinate the GEAR UP program there. ‘We will continue to partner with Syracuse University offering … two or more classes per academic year.’

With help from high school counselors, the programs also helped determine students most at risk of dropping out and paired them with Syracuse University students in a mentoring program that offered trips to New York City, as well as area museums, colleges and an SU basketball game. These events were designed to be more than educational.

‘I can tell you, the parents that went (to New York City), that was the first time they had been in a hotel,’ Kochian said. ‘We wanted them to have a taste of the beautiful world that is out there and the richness of Manhattan. Even with my own children, I wanted them to know what was out there so they will want more.’

The program’s initiatives have translated into tangible results as the two schools involved with the program had graduating classes in 2005 with higher overall class grades and a lower dropout rate than the high schools operating outside the program, according to the report.

‘Syracuse’s very strong performance in the first five years in GEAR UP was definitely helpful in its allotment for the next six years,’ said Ron Kermani, senior vice president for communications at the New York State Higher Education Services Corp., the state agency in charge of managing the funding for GEAR UP. ‘Clearly everyone in education can see the benefits of GEAR UP.’

However, the program does have several issues that limit its effectiveness, Kochian said.

First, while the program is designed to target at-risk children, participation in its programs is voluntary, Kochian said. The program thus has problems reaching the children who truly need it, as the ones involved are already motivated, while the ones who are not either bypass the programs or do not show up for school at all.

‘Every child who participated in at least one GEAR UP activity graduated.’ Kochian said. ‘If we can get every child to participate in our activities, we will increase our graduation rates.’

The program also limits itself to one grade level of children, following them through middle and then high school, Kochian said. This means that children not fortunate enough to be in the eighth grade in 2000, or in the seventh grade this year, will not receive any of GEAR UP’s programs.

The program also faces possible budget cuts, Kermani said.

‘Congress decides every year if they want to fund us again,’ he said. ‘They who giveth can taketh away.’

Published on September 20, 2005 at 12:00 pm