The pandemic brought new challenges to everyone over the past year and a half. But for GEAR UP Coach, KenJuan Lockhart, he embraced the challenge and helped students succeed in spite of COVID-19.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lockhart joined GEAR UP in 2020 as a coach, and he has taught English at Buckeye Union High School for four years. \u201cWhen the opportunity came up, it made sense because I get to reach a broader range of students on a daily basis,\u201d Mr. Lockhart said.<\/p>\n
Mr. Lockhart relates well to students and personally understands the difficult circumstances students experience. \u201cWhen I look across the table and see a student, who comes from a similar environment as I did, that to me is the biggest benefit,\u201d Mr. Lockhart said. \u201cSure, the activities and trips are fun, but helping these students find a direction and purpose is the biggest thing for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr. Lockhart radiates positivity, and optimism is another key to his success. \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m all about. If I can be positive, I\u2019m going to be positive\u2026\u201d Mr. Lockhart said. \u201cLet\u2019s find things to celebrate. Every day is a blessing, and it\u2019s a gift to do something with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the school year shifted online, he saw the challenge as a teaching opportunity for his students. \u201cThe pandemic was a challenge and also a chance to teach the kids that things like this happen in life. Sometimes we have to pivot, and you\u2019re going to have to adjust and make changes when you don\u2019t want to, and it\u2019s how you handle those circumstances that reflect how things are going to be in the future.\u201d Mr. Lockhart said.<\/p>\n
At the beginning of the year, he set a goal to make sure at least one of his students earned the Dorrance Scholarship, a prestigious scholarship that is valued at up to $120,000 towards college education. He worked with students individually, guiding them through the application process and getting all their paperwork right. Mr. Lockhart and his students worked on things like mock interviews, building resumes, how to dress for an interview, and how to convey professional mannerisms.<\/p>\n
Hard work paid off. With the help of Mr. Lockhart and GEAR UP, not one, but two students earned the Dorrance Scholarship, and received a full-ride scholarship to the college of their choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat GEAR UP does is strategic; it allows for one-on-one real conversations and relationship building opportunity to help take the steps with students to help them get to where they want to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The pandemic brought new challenges to everyone over the past year and a half. But for GEAR UP Coach, KenJuan Lockhart, he embraced the challenge and helped students succeed in spite of COVID-19. Mr. Lockhart joined GEAR UP in 2020 as a coach, and he has taught English at Buckeye Union High School for four […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":555,"featured_media":3702,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","_oasis_is_in_workflow":0,"_oasis_original":0,"_oasis_task_priority":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,3],"tags":[12,91,42],"class_list":["post-2652","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-education","tag-arizona-gear-up","tag-coach","tag-spotlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/555"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/gear-up\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}