The Jackson County GEAR UP program will host a tailgate party Friday night for students to connect with postsecondary institutions before the first home football game.
GEAR UP Site Supervisor Kevin Thomas said the College Career tailgate is an effort to expose students to the different opportunities available after high school. Thomas said a football game was the perfect setting for this event because of the high community turnout.
“There’ll be people coming out that would probably never go, but we still think that football and sports in itself just brings more people together,” Thomas said. “So, we wanted to involve that with a football game here earlier in the year just to get the excitement going.”
Site Supervisor Christie Garrison said GEAR UP is still new to the county. Garrison said one of the goals is to start building a college-going culture in the community, with a focus on seventh, eighth, and twelfth graders.
Thomas said GEAR UP is an acronym for Gaining Early Access and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. He said Jackson County is one of six counties in the eastern half of Tennessee with this program.
“We’re really looking to raise our numbers for students to go post-secondary,” Thomas said. “GEAR UP is here to help their ACT scores. Try to supplement any program that’s going on in the schools. And we do college visits with the kids, and just having summer programs with the kids, staying involved in their education all throughout high school.”
Garrison said the organization acts as a college and career coach for the students. With the goal of creating a college going culture comes a shift, and Thomas said that has been evident from teachers.
“We have the buy in from our Director of Schools, all the way down to our principals to our teachers,” Thomas said. “And that’s the first thing that’s got to happen. And Christie and I have been going and having one-on-one mentoring meetings with the students and having class meetings.”
Thomas said each Jackson County school has a room for GEAR UP, and that space serves as somewhere to discuss students’ next steps.
Thomas said there are a lot of potential first generation college students in Jackson County. He said for these students, awareness is key. Thomas said making sure students know the options they have helps them to make a good decision for their future.
“We always talk to kids, ‘Don’t think about being a high school graduate as your biggest dream,” Thomas said. “Your biggest dream needs to be, ‘Hey, do I need to go to a 2 year, four year, what do I want to look like in 10 years? Where do I want to be?'”
Thomas said the event is not only for high school students. Any adults interested in continuing or starting their education may meet with an adult education navigator at the tailgate.
The GEAR UP College and Career Tailgate will begin Friday at 5pm.
