GSU to mark beginning of the LA Gear Up camp

Grambling State University is having its LA Gear Up Kick Off Monday, June 16 with a training session for faculty and staff.
It will be hosted on GSU’s campus to mark the beginning days of Grambling’s LA Gear Up camp for Louisiana high school students between the grades of 7 and 12.
All administration, staff and community sponsors are invited to partake in the La Gear Up kick off orientation where tee shirts, binders of information, and refreshments will be distributed. This is a chance for all involved to gather to meet.
The La Gear Up program is a one-week summer camp for Louisiana high school students. Act tutoring, leadership, math and science enrichment and the college experience are the focuses of the camp. Session one of the camp begins June 22 and ends June 28 while the second session is from July 6 to July 12. The campus will be held throughout various buildings of Grambling State University’s campus. Dr. Loretta Jagger’s serves as the camp Director, while Co-Director, Dr. Nanthalia McJamerson assists. This year’s theme is Crime Scene Investigation. Students can look forward to learning Forensic, Biology, and Environmental Sciences along with engineering, sports, games, guest speakers, a field trip, and living the life of a college student for a week. The Gear Up program has been a part of Grambling State University’s summer activities for four years.
Starting in 2005 with a budget of $37,000 to support 50 students for one one-week session, the camp has grown to a $104,343 budget to support 144 students in two one-week sessions.
The camp lays a great foundation for students who are unsure about going to college. Having the camp on GSU’s college campus allows the students of the black and gold.
The students will be housed in dorms, eat in the campus dining hall, and attend classes in college class rooms giving them the sense that they too can one day attend the university as students. “The purpose is to show the student to reach for the stars and that anything is possible,” Dr. McJamerson.
The ACT tutoring program shows the students how to go about applying for college. An ACT pre-test will be administered on the first day to get students used to taking such and important test. The ACT is required to enter any all LA colleges and “the pre-test help students to be less intimidated and familiar with the format of the test,” Dr. Jaggers.
Math and Science skills will be built by attending daily “Explorations” or classes. College professors will give lectures to the students with variety of hands on activities to sink in the lessons taught.
Leadership and self-esteem are also topics of importance at the La Gear Up program. Speakers of all career fields and backgrounds from surgeons and nurses of the medical fields to college professors in the field of education, to private investigators in the in the criminal justice field are scheduled to speak about their professions and give words of encouragement to the young campers.
Camp applications for students and staff are no longer being accepted for this year but those who are interested for future camps should apply online at http:://www.latech.edu/lagearup. The camp is put on by the state and is free for students who are accepted. The camp is projected to be a great success.