Federal grant program wrapping up 7 years of helping students find a path to college

SALT LAKE CITY — The USU STARS GEAR UP program just wrapped up its fourth grant after seven years of service.

It's a federally funded program, with each grant providing Utah State University millions of dollars — all to help lower-income students access more resources to help them get through secondary education.

According to Bobbee Russell Verhoef, the program's marketing director, options include trade schools or colleges in or out of the state. She says the beauty of the program is that it's entirely personalized to the student.

"They can choose the best fit for them," she said. "We act as a resource through that first year, being a listening ear for the stress and the growing pains of post-secondary education ... and with enrollment classes, financial aid and scholarships, all of the important things."

The grant works through partner schools, where at least 50% of the student population receives free or reduced lunches. They are lower-income schools that typically have fewer resources available to them.

"That means that a lot of our students are first-generation, and so it's really important for us to be there and help those students learn about ... all of those resources for college that they might not have from a parent or from a guardian," Verhoef said.

There are various opportunities for students attending the partner schools, starting as early as seventh grade. Once they're in the program, Verhoef says they can remain part of it until the end of their first year out of high school.

In the program's initial seven years of operation, Verhoef said more than 27,000 students have been served in the form of academic support, help with financial aid applications, college campus tours and more.

One of those students was Sicora Henline, a first-generation college student. She said that before she got involved with the program, college wasn't really on her radar.

"College was kind of a tough aspect for me to consider just because my parents didn't really know how to help me through college applications, what college best fits for me, what I might actually be looking for in my future if I ever decided to go to college," she said. "So (GEAR UP) helped with a lot. They made me see that I could start taking AP classes to get a head start ... and see how upper-level classes felt."

Henline said the program also helped pay for AP tests and Concurrent Enrollment fees. She also said the support when filing for financial aid through FAFSA was a game-changer, because it was complicated and hard to understand.

She toured multiple campuses with the group before settling on Utah State University as the right fit for her.

"I was planning on going to the (University of Utah)," she remembered. "But going to the U., going on those field trips and learning about the resources that each college has, I kind of felt like the U. wasn't the right spot for me. Then going to Utah State really felt like there was a community that I could thrive in, which was very true."

Henline is now in her junior year, studying psychology and planning to go into human resources after getting a master's degree.

"I feel like they really help set that foundation up for me to be able to do and to choose what I want," she said. "They honestly helped me go through anything hard I ever had in high school and made me really, truly visualize that I can go to college, that it was an option for me."

Henline also said the program inspired her to apply for jobs within the university. She became a peer mentor with the Aggie First Scholars program as a sophomore, and an officer later on — something that she said has built her time management skills, confidence and critical thinking.

She wasn't alone in taking advantage of the GEAR UP program. Henline said she's kept in touch with her friends from middle school and high school, most of whom are also now in college.

"It's been like a really great opportunity to see them thrive, especially when we all come from the same high school, we all had the same challenges," she said. "Knowing that we all had that support kind of feels like that little tether that we all have to each other."

GEAR UP has grant funding through October 2031, and program administrators plan to apply for grants to keep it running further.

Related topics