New program hopes to improve high school's bleak drop out rate
11/20/2009
By Patrick Lilja
Staff Writer
This spring, approximately 25 UWS students will be working with at-risk sixth graders from Superior Middle School through the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness in Superior, or GEARS program.
The program is intended to help the middle school students do well throughout middle and high school, and subsequently for these middle school students to pursue a college education.
“Right now, up to 45% of students do not graduate from high school in Superior,” said GEARS Director Jenice Kienzle, who is also coordinator of the Center for Academic Service-Learning.
Due to its high non-graduation rate, as well as the high levels of poverty in Superior, Superior was selected by the UW System’s Growth Agenda as the recipient of the $100,000 grant to be used in support of Wisconsin’s KnowHow2Go Network.
Kienzle and GEARS want to be able to show these at-risk middle school students that college is possible, no matter what their financial situations may be.
“We need to go and show these kids that they can in fact make it to college, and now is the time,” said Kienzle. “It’s much easier to help them out starting when they’re sixth graders, rather than if they were ninth graders. We need to be able to make these kids say, ‘I can go on and make it to college.’ So we started planting those seeds early.”
Kienzle says the primary goals of GEARS are to increase both the numbers of at-risk SMS students who go on to graduate from high school and the percentage of ninth grade students in Superior who are ready to succeed in high school and pursue a college education.
UWS also benefits from this program as it increases the level of UWS student involvement in the community and builds a sustainable community project.
As part of this community building project, the UWS student mentors must fit the right mold. Kienzle described a mentor as someone who is extremely responsible, motivated, interested, and overall someone who will be a positive role model for their student and the Superior community.
UWS students hoping to become mentors to a SMS sixth grader must apply for the position and then take a sociology course through the University if they have not already taken this course.
Registration for mentorships continues through November 23. Applicants are expected to have completed at least one semester as a UWS student and be in good academic standing with a minimum GPA of 2.5.
The program is intended to help the middle school students do well throughout middle and high school, and subsequently for these middle school students to pursue a college education.
“Right now, up to 45% of students do not graduate from high school in Superior,” said GEARS Director Jenice Kienzle, who is also coordinator of the Center for Academic Service-Learning.
Due to its high non-graduation rate, as well as the high levels of poverty in Superior, Superior was selected by the UW System’s Growth Agenda as the recipient of the $100,000 grant to be used in support of Wisconsin’s KnowHow2Go Network.
Kienzle and GEARS want to be able to show these at-risk middle school students that college is possible, no matter what their financial situations may be.
“We need to go and show these kids that they can in fact make it to college, and now is the time,” said Kienzle. “It’s much easier to help them out starting when they’re sixth graders, rather than if they were ninth graders. We need to be able to make these kids say, ‘I can go on and make it to college.’ So we started planting those seeds early.”
Kienzle says the primary goals of GEARS are to increase both the numbers of at-risk SMS students who go on to graduate from high school and the percentage of ninth grade students in Superior who are ready to succeed in high school and pursue a college education.
UWS also benefits from this program as it increases the level of UWS student involvement in the community and builds a sustainable community project.
As part of this community building project, the UWS student mentors must fit the right mold. Kienzle described a mentor as someone who is extremely responsible, motivated, interested, and overall someone who will be a positive role model for their student and the Superior community.
UWS students hoping to become mentors to a SMS sixth grader must apply for the position and then take a sociology course through the University if they have not already taken this course.
Registration for mentorships continues through November 23. Applicants are expected to have completed at least one semester as a UWS student and be in good academic standing with a minimum GPA of 2.5.
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