As the Class of 2024 finishes their last semester in Akins, there is another group that is on its way out, as well.
Gear Up, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Program, is a federal grant program that awarded Austin ISD millions of dollars from the U.S. Department of Education to assist the Class of 2024 since they were in sixth grade.
“(Gear Up is) an equity grant to close the college aspiration gap,” Gear Up facilitator Lara Noack said. “What that means is (Akins and its feeder) schools are Title I schools. Compared to non-Title I schools there’s a 20% gap between the amount of students who can see themselves going to college.”
Noack said she heard about the program from a colleague who told her about the grant back in 2017. Noack was working as a fifth and fourth-grade English and Social Studies teacher for 11 years in a Title I middle school. Noack said she was attracted to working with Gear Up because she believed it would allow her to provide more equitable educational opportunities.
Title I schools are defined to have a majority of economically disadvantaged students who are at risk for school achievement. Schools that offer student and family support and have a majority of families who experience financial struggles are labeled Title I schools. Austin ISD has seven Gear Up groups with Akins having the biggest cohort of students.
The Gear Up grant aims to close the 90% chronic absenteeism in schools and meet students where they are with a focus on their grades, schedules as well as personal and emotional needs. Akins’ Gear Up team has created a space where students feel welcomed and safe to unwind. From TSIs, SAT, college applications, and financial aid challenges, Gear Up has helped students overcome all types of obstacles. They set SMART goals with students, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-based. This helps students grow in other areas like waking up in time for school or giving students rides to school if they missed their bus.
Lexi Robinson is a lead advocate for Partners in Education who has been working in Akins’ Gear Up for the past two years. Robinson said her roles vary per student, from helping with school work, writing emails to teachers, finding a resolution where there are problems with students, and hearing their concerns. The schedule of tutors and advocates offers complete flexibility which aids teachers and counselors who have a huge student body to serve.
For some students, the first thing they think of when they think of Gear Up is field trips to tour colleges. These trips also helped strengthen bonds between Gear Up facilitators and students. Senior Adamaris Olivares, who will be going to UT Austin and majoring in journalism, said she grew fond of the Gear Up program during a trip to Texas State University-San Marcos.
“My favorite Gear Up experiences were going on all the field trips,” she said. “I loved attending different colleges and having my friends be able to come with me, I absolutely loved going to Texas State, which is where Ms. Noack and I got closer since then I loved visiting her classroom and getting help and advice from her.”
BLEND announcements are sent to the senior class regarding scholarships, fee waivers, or raffles regarding student necessities. Through these announcements, Olivares applied to scholarships and got many of her application fees waived. Ultimately, Olivares obtained the Gates Scholarship, which offers a full ride to any college of her choice, and the University of Texas’ Impact Scholarship of $80,000 along other smaller scholarships.
Some students have been involved with Gear Up since sixth grade and have grown with the program, including senior Cecilia Padillo, who will be majoring in Motion Design at ACC this fall. Padilla remembers sitting down in her middle school assemblies in sixth grade and growing closer to the program as she got older. Padilla obtained career orientation regarding her major from Gear Up.
“She helped me look at my grades and pick [classes] up. So she was slowly guiding me but not telling me to do it, she was very gentle,” Padillo said.
Janaya Brock, college advisor for the class of 2024 mentioned the challenges students faced with obtaining financial aid, including challenges with filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid application.
“GearUp was able to just be a second pair of eyes, because it took so long for each of us to go through FAFSA altogether,” she said. “They were there for every single FAFSA meeting and offered their own opinions on it. Gear Up was there to be hands-on with the students.”
Claudia Arellano, College and Career Center counselor, works to inform senior classes about their options after high school. Arellano said Gear Up’s presence at Akins has helped to expose students at an early age to college.
“They’ve been working with students for almost six years, if not more. It’s been nice for them to hear [about] all of these colleges and college vocabulary way before some people hear it,” Arellano said.
