LA GEAR UP is designed to help your children succeed as students. Our mission is to increase the number of students in Louisiana that graduate from high school to enroll and succeed in college.

Why should your child go to college?
As a college graduate, your child will have more choices. College will help your children expand their understanding of facts, figures, and concepts and better understand the world at large. College will also increase the likelihood that your children will earn a good living wage. According to Census Bureau estimates, over an adult’s working life, high school graduates earn an average of $1.2 million; associate’s degree holders earn about $1.6 million; and bachelor’s degree holders earn about $2.1 million.
As a parent, you want your children to grow up prepared for the future, properly educated and armed with marketable skills that will carry them through their adult lives; LA GEAR UP wants to help you accomplish that! Beginning in the 7th grade and following your student through his/her 12th grade year, LA GEAR UP offers an assortment of academic enrichment opportunities, college awareness activities, and financial support for higher education, such as those listed below:

Summer Learning Camps—free one-week residential camps hosted on Louisiana university campuses. Students receive individualized academic support and tutoring, develop peer leadership skills, research and plan for their future education and career, and enjoy daily recreation and field trips.

Explorers Clubs—fun-filled extensions of Summer Learning Camps, Explorers Clubs build on the camp experience throughout the academic year. Clubs reinforce peer leadership skills, focus on community service, encourage attainment of personal goals, and support academic growth.

Jump-Start, College Connections, and Pathfinders—interactive financial-aid workshops developed to help 11th graders and their parents get a jump on the financial-aid process. In all its financial-aid workshops, LA GEAR UP consistently emphasizes the benefits and requirements of qualifying for TOPS, the state scholarship program for students enrolling in Louisiana colleges and universities.

Rewards for Success—a unique scholarship program that can help bridge the financial aid gap for LA GEAR UP students by supplementing TOPS and Pell Grants. Scholarships of $1,000, $500, or $250 are tied directly to academic achievement, student responsibility, and parental involvement.
We also emphasize the Louisiana Core Curriculum–courses your child should take to enter Louisiana public colleges and universities.

As a parent, we know that you play an important role in your child’s academic success. The links below will help you fulfill that role by making informed decisions to help guide your child on the path to college:

• ACT: A year-by-year checklist to help you keep the college planning process on track.
• College Board: Help your child make smart choices now to start on an education and career track that are a match for your child’s skills and preferences.
• Louisiana’s Student Tuition Assistance Revenue Trust Program (START): An innovative college savings plan.
• Adventures in Education: From college planning advice to financial aid information to career guidance, AIE has the reliable information students and parents need to make the right decisions for the future. Get FAFSA help and financial aid assistance, learn about college admissions, and search scholarships for free.

Posted: October 23rd, 2007 under parental advice.
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