UNIVERSITY PROGRAM TARGETS AREA TEEN-AGERS

Educators at Southeast Missouri State University and two Bootheel school districts hope a new grant-funded program will spark academic interest in seventh-graders and help them prepare for college.

The university will receive $1.5 million over the next five years to coordinate GEAR-UP, or Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. The federally funded program will provide assistance to Charleston, North Pemiscot and Caruthersville, Mo., school districts.

The program aims to increase parental involvement with students, achievement expectations of teachers, and overall student preparedness for college.

"This is an outcome-driven program," said Southeast interim dean of students Dr. Irene Ferguson. "We're saying we expect after we do this there should be improvement in how they're scoring and their college readiness."

Ferguson said the schools involved in the program were selected because at least half of their enrollments qualified for the federal Free and Reduced Lunch Program, which is often used as an indicator of poverty in school districts, and because of low achievement on the Missouri Assessment Program, a series of state exams which test student academic knowledge at various grade levels.

Activities for students

To assist students, education counselors from the university establish career awareness activities and summer classes. They also visit the school districts weekly to check student records and develop new or coordinate existing tutorial and other programs.

In addition to working with the schools, the program will work with agencies already providing activities for students, including the Susanna Wesley Family Learning Center of East Prairie, Mo., and the Pemiscot County Initiative Network of Caruthersville, Mo.

"We're not trying to reinvent anything," Ferguson said. "Hopefully, whenever the funding ends they would be able to continue many of these things anyway."

Charleston Middle School Principal Rob Hicklin, who was a first-generation college student, said students already are benefiting from participation in programs. He said getting students onto college campuses early is vital in order to keep their interest in school.

"It's a chance to let them know there's something beyond today, and to hopefully inspire them to make good grades and see there's a pretty good life out there," Hicklin said. "Our goal is to have all our kids to try for As and Bs. It's an impossible goal probably, but it's one we want to try and meet."