Grant will help GVSU college awareness program

A college awareness program at Grand Valley that provides academic support and encouragement to students from Grand Rapids Public Schools received a grant for $52,433.93 to continue the program.

The U.S. Department of Education and the State of Michigan awarded the grant that will fund the Michigan Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) initiative in the Office of Multicultural Affairs at Grand Valley through 2018. The program facilitates student tutoring and mentoring, workshops, college preparation and financial aid, and assists schools, teachers and parents to better prepare students for college studies.

Bobby Jo Springer, associate director of OMA and Grand Valley GEAR UP program manager, said the grant will apply to current GRPS seventh grade students. “They automatically became part of the GEAR UP program when they started seventh grade this year,” he said. “We will follow them through high school and their first year of college, and provide experiences along the way to help them succeed in the classroom and gain skills necessary to be a college graduate.”

Springer organizes one-day, Grand Valley campus tours for individual seventh grade classes throughout the year, and will invite the whole class of 2017—more than 500 students—to campus at the end of the school year. This summer, groups of students will spend a few days on campus to become familiar with a college environment and take trips to tour other universities throughout the state.

“The goal of this program is to get the students to college, period,” Springer said. “Receiving a bachelor’s and master’s degree opened up so many doors for me, and I just know what it can do for them.”

The program is a national effort and all 15 public universities in Michigan have a GEAR UP program.

For more information visit Grand Valley’s GEAR UP website or contact Bobby Jo Springer at (616) 331-2177 or [email protected].