Toolkits for GEAR UP Coordinators and Other College Access Professionals
Arizona GEAR UP State Office Staff strive to provide helpful tools and toolkits to GEAR UP coordinators working directly with students at GEAR UP schools. Other college access professionals, including school counselors, have also found these tools to be helpful. We are grateful to many other GEAR UP grantees who have generously shared their materials, which have informed our efforts, and at times have been incorporated into our materials.
Please note: The toolkits available here contain sample documents and templates that can be downloaded in editable Microsoft Word format by simply clicking on the links embedded within each pdf document.
Absence Intervention Toolkit Accordion Closed
This toolkit, intended to supplement the Arizona GEAR UP Minimum Standards for Absence Intervention, provides information about common causes of student absences, tips for effective intervention, both individually and systemically, sample forms and letters and additional resources to engage parents in supporting good attendance.
Academic Mentoring Toolkit Accordion Closed
Academic Mentors are college students who work in and out of the classroom as tutors and mentors/role models to middle school and high school students. Academic Mentors not only help students overcome academic challenges they face, such as absences, poor grades, or homework problems, they also instill positive academic values, beliefs, and attitudes that promote college and career readiness. They serve as both Mentor and Tutor, helping students develop academic and non-cognitive / metacognitive skills. This toolkit provides information and documents to support the successful implementation of Academic Mentoring at GEAR UP Schools. Associated training modules, with gratitude to Weber State University for allowing us to use and modify their materials for our community, are available here.
College & Career Fair Toolkit Accordion Closed
A college and career fair, sometimes called a college and career expo, hosted by a high school or school district, is an event at which college admission representatives and industry professionals are all gathered in one place with the goal of helping students learn about a variety of careers and the educational pathways to those careers.
This toolkit provides a detailed checklist, sample documents and photos to help GEAR UP Coordinators plan and execute a successful college and career fair for high school students.
College Application Campaign Toolkit Accordion Closed
College Application Campaigns are hosted each fall at high schools around the country. The purpose is to provide assistance, encouragement and excitement for the college application process, focused especially on students from backgrounds historically under-represented in higher education and students who will be the first in their family to complete college.
This toolkit provides a detailed checklist, sample letters and forms, photographs and ideas to help GEAR UP Coordinators plan and execute a successful College Application Campaign in the fall of students’ senior year of high school.
The “Participation Book” document referenced in the toolkit can be accessed here
College Signing Day Toolkit Accordion Closed
This toolkit provides a checklist, sample letters and forms, ideas and photographs to help GEAR UP Coordinators plan and execute a successful College Signing Day in the spring of students’ senior year of high school.
College Visits Toolkit Accordion Closed
This toolkit provides a checklist, inspiration and sample documents to help GEAR UP Coordinators plan and execute a successful college campus visit for 8th grade students.
Financial Aid Powerpoint Accordion Closed
This powerpoint presentation includes a script (in the notes section of each slide) to facilitate the presentation of important financial aid information to students. Intended audience is high school sophomores and juniors. The accompanying Financial Literacy Quiz can also be found here.
Parent Engagement Toolkit Accordion Closed
A rich body of research has shown that when schools engage the families of their students, families get more involved in their children’s education and student achievement increases. Therefore, family engagement is an important strategy for achieving GEAR UP goals. This toolkit outlines a framework for strategic, culturally-sensitive family engagement as well as practical tips and tools for successfully engaging GEAR UP families in a variety of ways.