GEAR UP to Host Robotics Camp, 40 High School Students at SUNY Cobleskill     

Throughout the week of July 6 - 10, 40 ninth and tenth grade students from Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) at SUNY Cobleskill, St. John’s University, Dowling College and Binghamton University will converge at SUNY Cobleskill for a residential robotics summer camp.

Twenty students from the local program will be paired with 20 students from the other programs, forming teams of two. Throughout the week, with guidance from certified LEGO robotics instructors, each team will create an autonomous robot which will contend in a competition at the end of the week. In addition to icebreaker activities students will visit local attractions such as Howe Caverns, the SUNY Oneonta Biological Field Station and Clark Sports Center in Cooperstown.
GEAR UP is a U.S. Department of Education grant funded program that works with low income schools to help eighth and ninth grade students succeed in high school and go on, fully prepared for higher education.

“We provide academic counseling and financial aid counseling for students and parents alike,” said Paul Turner, director of SUNY Cobleskill’s GEAR UP. “When the first six-year grant ended in 2005, our students had visited 37 colleges throughout New York.”

According to Turner, traditionally, less than 30 percent of students from low income schools complete college.

“With SUNY Cobleskill’s GEAR UP, 100 percent of the students had applied to college and were accepted and 94 percent went to college,” he said. “After one year we did some formal tracking and found that 74 percent of students were still in college and going back for their sophomore years.”

Turner also noted 11 students had matriculated to SUNY Cobleskill, and all of them are now coming back for their senior year.

“GEAR UP gives students a sense that they can go to college,” continued Turner. “We work with students and parents to expose them to all of the financial aid that is out there. We show them that New York State’s colleges are affordable for everyone.”

SUNY Cobleskill’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs works with students from Middleburgh, Jefferson, Stamford, South Kortright, Charlotte Valley, Laurens, Morris, Richfield Springs, St. Johnsville, Owen D. Young and Fort Plain central school districts. The grant funded program provides tutoring, mentoring, academic counseling, financial aid counseling, as well as college, career and cultural exploration opportunities the classes of 2011 and 2012 in low income schools. Participating schools must have more than 50 percent of its students eligible for the federal free or reduced lunch program.