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Fairmont Heights, Central seniors get laptops for applying for scholarships
After filling out at least five college applications, five scholarship forms and a federal aid application, a select group of Fairmont Heights High School students stared ahead Friday at the reward for their efforts: a row of more than 20 black laptop cases on the school’s media center floor.
Students in Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, or GEAR UP — a college and career preparatory program that has tracked many of the students since seventh grade — received 24 laptops.
“I want you to take the concept of, ‘If I do a little extra maybe it will pay off,’” Fairmont Heights’ GEAR UP coordinator Ameerah Bello told the students. “It never hurts to do extra and I always want you to go through life doing extra.”
GEAR UP is federally funded and managed through the state’s Department of Education for Central and Fairmont Heights high schools. The goal is to make every class of 2011 graduate ready for college or a career through partnerships such as Central’s culinary arts program through Largo’s Prince George’s Community College.
Fairmont Heights senior Melissa Pearson, 17, Seat Pleasant, said filling out scholarship forms got easier with time.
She was offered $6,500 per semester and $1,500 for room and board if she chooses Delaware State. Pearson said she will likely attend Salisbury University to study psychology.
“I actually completed more than five scholarships because I just found the process like, I need to do this,” Pearson said. “I need money for college.”
This May the state Department of Education will submit a grant proposal to the federal government in the hope of starting a GEAR UP cohort in the 2011-2012 school year for the class of 2017, wrote Brian Dulay, GEAR UP state coordinator in an e-mail to The Gazette. Schools would be selected based on factors such as standardized test scores and how many students receive free and reduced meals.
There are approximately 175 seniors at Fairmont Heights and 244 at Central. Bello said there have been 121 college acceptance letters, with some students receiving more than one. Sheree Leonard, Central’s GEAR UP coordinator, said about 60 percent of her seniors received acceptance letters. Four students who either are high achievers or the most improved receive laptops per quarter, Leonard said.
The laptops were funded with $60,000 set aside from the $180,000 in federal funding given to Fairmont Heights and up to 46 students could receive them before April 15 if they apply to five schools and five scholarships, fill out their FAFSA and have their parents attend college workshops.
Students began GEAR UP at G. James Gholson and Walker Mill middle schools. Gholson, in Landover, feeds into Fairmont Heights and Walker Mill, in Capitol Heights, feeds into Central. Bello has been with the same group of students since their eighth-grade year.
Leonard said having one person follow the students from middle to high school is critical. Leonard could identify students who misbehaved and it made it easier for guidance counselors to find students with lower grade-point averages.
“You can identify someone who’s getting lost sooner,” Leonard said. “All I need to do is just let the parent know one time and that behavior will be taken care of.”
nmcgill@gazette.net
Photo Credit: Raphael Talisman/The Gazette
