Oregon GEAR UP

At Oregon GEAR UP, SUCCESS = Supporting Unique Community Coalitions Engaged in Student Success. An annual three-day event, the SUCCESS Retreat provides time for schools to meet with their GEAR UP Teams (consisting of administrators, teachers, counselors, GEAR UP coordinators and community members) to reflect on the past year and plan for the year ahead.

We feel better equipped and more confident in implementing terrific ideas to encourage our students to go to post-secondary education.

Highlights for participants included inspirational and motivating keynote speakers (Brett Bigham, 2014 Oregon Teacher of the Year; Joshua Gainey, GEAR UP Coordinator from UNLV; Erin Jones, Director of AVID for the Tacoma School District; and Kelly Hansen, Director of Training and Program for Portland-based company Vox Siren), learning new ideas during 22 different breakout sessions, and being together as a team with focused time to plan.

The guest speakers have been terrific. The breakout sessions are very informative and the team time is wonderful.

Keep fueling us! We learn something every year!

The highlight was learning about new programs and making connections to our own work and mission.