CELINA-Clay County is set to receive more than $880,000 in funding to promote college readiness thanks to a new effort from Tennessee Tech University supported by a federal grant.

The Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) grant is the second-largest grant in Tech’s 109-year history and the university’s largest grant aimed at directly serving populations in Tennessee. Altogether, it will invest nearly $10 million in college readiness programs targeted to four counties.

Project leads Darek Potter, director of Tech’s Millard Oakley STEM Center and assistant professor of exercise science, Julie Baker, interim associate provost and dean of the College of Graduate Studies, and Luke Anderson, instructor of curriculum and instruction, say the grant is a way for Tech to pay it forward by expanding pathways to higher education for K-12 students in nearby rural communities.

In addition to Clay County, the grant will also serve Overton, Scott and Warren counties. Notably, Clay and Scott counties are categorized as “distressed” counties by the Appalachian Regional Commission, while Warren County is classified as “at-risk” and Overton County ranks as “transitional.”

The trio of Tech faculty members—all former K-12 classroom teachers—emphasize that they have witnessed firsthand the difference that higher education can make in the trajectory of students, their families and communities. They also know the importance of early interventions, which is why they have tailored Tech’s GEAR UP program to begin reaching students in the sixth grade.

“GEAR UP is specifically designed to increase the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in post-secondary education,” explained Potter. “We see the need, especially in the rural areas we work in, to provide more supports for students to reduce obstacles to higher education. That’s what this is all about.”

“I came from a very rural background where college wasn’t seen as an option for many of the students I grew up with,” added Baker. “Now, we’re in a position where we can help provide opportunities to increase college readiness for rural students. This is a way to do that – to say to rural students from those four counties, ‘You can do this. You can go to college. There is a pathway for you.’”

Under the GEAR UP grant, Tech will hire an executive director located on campus to oversee outreach to students in the four counties. The university will also deploy four “college access advisors” who will be divided among the counties and will work directly in the local K-12 schools serving students and shepherding them through their high school years and the college application process. An administrative associate, two graduate assistants and a handful of student workers will round out the project team.

The grant’s longer time frame and robust funding means that Tech will serve every current sixth and seventh grader in Clay, Overton, Scott and Warren counties – a population of more than 1,700 students. The students will receive support, mentorship and resources that will continue over the next seven years, sustaining them through high school and into the first steps of their higher education journeys.

To help students stay on track, the program will identify academically at-risk individuals through an early warning system, based on indicators such as Algebra I and ACT scores, and provide those students with tutoring and added supports.

Recognizing that only 13 percent of adults in the four-county territory have college degrees, the program will also conduct targeted outreach to families unfamiliar with the college admissions process, providing them with everything from guidance on completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to access to college advisors and planned “parent engagement nights,” as well as campus visits to Tech and other institutions.

Local partners who have committed resources or provided other support for the grant include the Tennessee Tech Center for Rural Innovation, the Tennessee Tech Cybersecurity, Education, Research and Outreach Center (CEROC), Highlands Economic Partnership, IMPACT Cookeville, Livingston Regional Hospital, Roane State Community College, Tennessee College of Applied Technology-Livingston, and Volunteer State Community College.

GEAR UP is just the latest way Tech has established itself as a leader in rural innovation and reducing barriers to higher education.

Since 2019, the university’s Rural Reimagined Grand Challenge has provided no-cost tourism projects, branding assets, economic impact studies and other supports to businesses and communities in the state’s rural, distressed and at-risk counties. Likewise, the university was recently selected for participation in the FirstGen Forward Network, a consortium of universities dedicated to advancing success for first-generation college students.

Learn more about the GEAR UP program at https://www2.ed.gov/programs/gearup/index.html.