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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- An eighteen million dollar federal grant will pay the college expenses of more than twenty-five-hundred low-income Utah seventh graders.
GEAR UP -- or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs -- is a program designed to increase the number of low-income students prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education.
Utah Valley State College was awarded the GEAR UP grant.
Over the next six years, eligible students will have individualized help from counselors to prepare them for college. If they graduate, they'll get their college tuition paid, no matter where they go to school.
U-V-S-C assistant vice president Mark Bezzant says it's a big deal for Utah to get the grant. He says parents have cried after hearing about the help available to their children.
The 650 students at Salt Lake's Northwest and Glendale schools will be the primary beneficiaries of the program. U-V-S-C will also give smaller grants to other Utah colleges, so that low-income students across the state will benefit.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
