Tech scores record-setting grant to promote college readiness in rural Tennessee
Tennessee Tech faculty leaders managing the nearly $10 million GEAR UP grant include, from left: Julie Baker, interim associate provost and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, Darek Potter, director of Tech’s Millard Oakley STEM Center and assistant professor of exercise science, and Luke Anderson, instructor of curriculum and instruction.
Tennessee Tech University is set to pour nearly $10 million into college readiness
efforts in some of the state’s most rural and underserved communities, all thanks
to a major grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant
is the second largest grant in Tech’s 109-year history and the university’s largest
grant aimed at directly serving populations in Tennessee.
Project leads Darek Potter, director of Tech’s Millard Oakley STEM Center and assistant
professor of exercise science, Julie Baker, interim associate provost and dean of
the College of Graduate Studies, and Luke Anderson, instructor of curriculum and instruction,
say the grant is a way for Tech to pay it forward by expanding pathways to higher
education for K-12 students in nearby rural communities.
The grant will specifically serve Clay, Overton, Scott and Warren counties. Notably,
Clay and Scott counties are categorized as “distressed” counties by the Appalachian
Regional Commission, while Warren County is classified as “at-risk” and Overton County
ranks as “transitional.”
The trio of Tech faculty members – all former K-12 classroom teachers – emphasize
that they have witnessed firsthand the difference that higher education can make in
the trajectory of students, their families and communities. They also know the importance
of early interventions, which is why they have tailored Tech’s GEAR UP program to
begin reaching students in the sixth grade.
“GEAR UP is specifically designed to increase the number of low-income students who
are prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education,” explained Potter.
“We see the need, especially in the rural areas we work in, to provide more supports
for students to reduce obstacles to higher education. That’s what this is all about.”
“I came from a very rural background where college wasn’t seen as an option for many
of the students I grew up with,” added Baker. “Now, we’re in a position where we can
help provide opportunities to increase college readiness for rural students. This
is a way to do that – to say to rural students from those four counties, ‘You can
do this. You can go to college. There is a pathway for you.’”
Under the GEAR UP grant, Tech will hire an executive director located on campus to
oversee outreach to students in the four counties. The university will also deploy
four “college access advisors” who will be divided among the counties and will work
directly in the local K-12 schools serving students and shepherding them through their
high school years and the college application process. An administrative associate,
two graduate assistants and a handful of student workers will round out the project
team.
The grant’s longer time frame and robust funding means that Tech will serve every
current sixth and seventh grader in Clay, Overton, Scott and Warren counties – a population
of more than 1,700 students. Students will receive support, mentorship and resources
that will continue over the next seven years, sustaining them through high school
and into the first steps of their higher education journeys.
To help students stay on track, the program will identify academically at-risk individuals
through an early warning system, based on indicators such as Algebra I and ACT scores,
and provide those students with tutoring and added supports.
Recognizing that only 13 percent of adults in the four-county territory have college
degrees, the program will also conduct targeted outreach to families unfamiliar with
the college admissions process, providing them with everything from guidance on completing
the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to access to college advisors
and planned “parent engagement nights,” as well as campus visits to Tech and other
institutions.
Local partners who have committed resources or provided other support for the grant
include the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, the Tennessee Tech Cybersecurity,
Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC), Highlands Economic Partnership, IMPACT
Cookeville, Livingston Regional Hospital, Roane State Community College, Tennessee
College of Applied Technology-Livingston, and Volunteer State Community College.
GEAR UP is just the latest way Tech has established itself as a leader in rural innovation
and reducing barriers to higher education.
Since 2019, the university’s Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge has provided no-cost tourism projects, branding assets, economic impact studies and
other supports to businesses and communities in the state’s rural, distressed and
at-risk counties. Likewise, the university was recently selected for participation
in the FirstGen Forward Network, a consortium of universities dedicated to advancing success for first-generation
college students.
Learn more about the GEAR UP program at https://www2.ed.gov/programs/gearup/index.html.
