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HATTIESBURG
- A University of Southern Mississippi-based community service program
will help tutor and mentor some 7,500 disadvantaged middle and secondary
school students across the state as part of the federally funded
GEAR UP program.
Southern Miss's
Center for Community and Civic Engagement will participate in GEAR
UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs)
with the aid of a five-year, $64,425 grant channeled through the
Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning. Jennifer Phillips has
joined CCCE as tutoring and mentoring coordinator for the program.
GEAR UP in
Mississippi represents a collaborative effort between IHL, CCCE,
the Mississippi State Board for Community and Junior Colleges, the
Mississippi Department of Education, and a wide variety of other
public and private agencies and organizations.
"The program's
mission is to ensure that disadvantaged middle school and secondary
school students in Mississippi are prepared for, pursue and succeed
in post-secondary education," said Dr. Tom Schnaubelt, CCCE
director.
He said the
program is designed to address needs in family and community outreach;
tutoring and mentoring of students; professional development for
counselors, administrators and teachers; technology resources, network
and integrated support; and college tuition assistance.
Schnaubelt
said GEAR UP will work with 34 school districts that were targeted
according to free-reduced lunch and Title I, dropout-graduation
rates and classification by the Mississippi Department of Education
as "at-risk" schools. CCCE will focus on the tutoring
and mentoring component of the program, he said, and will provide
these services to some 7,500 lower-income students.
Phillips grew
up in New Orleans and recently moved from Phoenix, Ariz., to Hattiesburg.
She holds a master of arts degree in administration from the University
of New Orleans and earlier served as grants coordinator and special
projects director of the Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge, where
she organized and oversaw a variety of community initiatives and
projects.
CCCE is a Southern
Miss-based program that promotes community service and academics
among youth through a variety of after-school and service-learning
programs across Mississippi. Established in November 2000 by IHL
and the state Department of Education, the center fosters partnerships
between K-12 schools, institutions of higher learning and local
nonprofit entities; and develops programs that integrate service
opportunities with learning.
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