GEAR UP Portland Public Schools

GEAR UP Portland Public Schools PPS GEAR UP serves teachers and 12th-grade students at Jefferson, Roosevelt, and McDaniel schools in Portland, Oregon. Our 4 goals are:
1.

We also partner with the other six comprehensive high schools and one alternative school in PPS. The PPS GEAR UP Mobilizing for College (M4C) and Engage, Empower and Elevate (E3) are 7-year federal grants supporting college & career readiness in our cohort clusters. Our program focuses on three initiatives in addressing educational equity through students (SMART near-peer mentoring program), educa

tors (Transformative Data Inquiry Project) and BUILD (program bridging relationship between family advocacy and schools). Increase cohort students’ academic performance and preparation for post-secondary education

2. Increase the rate of high school graduation and college enrollment for cohort

3. Increase cohort students’ and families’ knowledge of post-secondary education options, preparation and financial aid

4. Increase the percentage of disabled students within cohort who earn college credit prior to high school graduation, and who graduate from high school

🎓 **Alumni Panel Recap!** 🎓What an inspiring day! The alumni panel at Jefferson was a huge success, as former students r...
02/06/2025

🎓 **Alumni Panel Recap!** 🎓

What an inspiring day! The alumni panel at Jefferson was a huge success, as former students returned to share their career journeys and the pathways they chose after graduation. 🙌

Our alumni shared invaluable insights into how they navigated their post-high school decisions and built their careers. 💼💡

Big thanks to our amazing panelists for giving back and offering current students a glimpse into the endless possibilities that lie ahead! 🌟 We look forward to two more days of hearing them them!


[images include photos of students sitting as they listen to the panelist, then photo of the panelists and then a small table group where students are placing stickers on their bingo sheets with facts about the speakers.]
📸 MFP & GCH
📫 JC

Are you ready to take the next step after high school? AVID Jefferson students participated in an informative workshop o...
02/06/2025

Are you ready to take the next step after high school? AVID Jefferson students participated in an informative workshop on Post-Secondary Options and explored the diverse paths that awaits them! Whether they’re considering university, college, apprenticeships, or taking a gap year, this workshop provided students with information needed to make an informed decision about their future.

[image is mentor Yeimy in a classroom speaking to students.]
📸 JC
📫 JC

During moments of uncertainty, we will continue to love on each other, share creativity and all of the things that makes...
01/29/2025

During moments of uncertainty, we will continue to love on each other, share creativity and all of the things that makes us human and bring a sense of calm to the spirit. It matters to feel. And to act. 🩷✊🏼
[photo shows a view overlooking a city from a hill.]
📫 JC
📸 JC

Earlier this month, a field trip for students, with mentor Camden and teacher Meredith occurred at a military base run b...
01/21/2025

Earlier this month, a field trip for students, with mentor Camden and teacher Meredith occurred at a military base run by the Oregon National Guard to learn how to do abdominal, pelvic, ocular and neck ultrasounds from Colonel Jon Van Horn. In the first video, students are looking at Major Killen’s heartbeat and bladder (photo). In the second video, he goes over the steps and anatomical features necessary for performing ocular ultrasounds. This was a very insightful field trip for students, thanks to their amazing teacher!
[videos and image described above]
📸 CL
📫 JC

Mentor Abby facilitated a workshop with her students, highlighting the usage of AI in schools and how students can use i...
01/19/2025

Mentor Abby facilitated a workshop with her students, highlighting the usage of AI in schools and how students can use it responsibly. Then, students created slime and tested it out on an AI website to determine if the slime they created matched the description generated from the website. It was a great method to bring to light the different usage of artificial intelligence.
[photos of Abby facilitating workshop in front of classroom.]
📸JC
📫 JC

Last Friday, mentor McKahan and his partner teacher Mr. Scott took their robotics class to Next Level, a pinball museum ...
01/14/2025

Last Friday, mentor McKahan and his partner teacher Mr. Scott took their robotics class to Next Level, a pinball museum to do some preliminary research on the different pinball’s design and storytelling as they will soon create their own. Students played several games, identified what they liked and what they want to replicate. They also had a technician to share their experience repairing pinballs and their own career background.

[images of students listening to teacher and technician, rows of pinballs machines and the inside of a pinball, and student’s hands holding machine parts.]
📫 JC
📸 JC

Today, mentors reviewed and reflected on data of their services the last several months with 2,510 students served acros...
12/14/2024

Today, mentors reviewed and reflected on data of their services the last several months with 2,510 students served across nine schools, 29 partner teachers, 45,753 hours of classroom enrichment and co-teaching, 190 hours of partner teacher collaboration and 40 college and career activities. We’re so proud of the direct services they’ve provided to students and dedicated teachers. We look forward to witnessing more. 🍀
As they wrap up their own college finals, our amazing mentors wishing everyone a well deserved break. 💙💚💛🧡🩷💜❤️🤎🤍🖤
[a full body group photo of a diverse, young adults, college-aged people standing in front of a screen.]
📸 AC
📫 JC

Students in Partner Teacher James Duckwell’s and mentor Miguel Perez Gomez’s Construction and Product Design class took ...
12/14/2024

Students in Partner Teacher James Duckwell’s and mentor Miguel Perez Gomez’s Construction and Product Design class took a field trip to the University of Oregon’s Architecture building at the Portland campus.

This day students got the opportunity to observe a studio review where the college students presented designs they’d worked on for a school project centered on Design Justice and Trauma-Informed Design.

Students learned about how social justice can be practiced in the field of architecture, listened to the student presenters explain the process of their design, and were exposed to a real-life examples of the topics they are learning about in their own Construction and Product Design class.

[photos are of various students groups speaking to the high school students, people presenting on their projects and building blueprints.]
📸 MPG
📫 JC

Which careers make the most money? Actors or Surgeons? Which careers takes the longest education? Journalist or electric...
12/04/2024

Which careers make the most money? Actors or Surgeons? Which careers takes the longest education? Journalist or electrician? That’s what the students at Wells explored during mentor Manar’s workshop with her partner teacher Hillary’s class. Students organized each careers based on their own knowledge, first by career length then by financial earnings. Afterwards, they reflected on how they made their determinations and if this impacts their perceptions of the career.
[photo of Manar facilitating in front of the class with Hillary, then with Manar walking in the middle of the class, other shows students holding strips of paper and putting it on a line.]
📸 JC
📫 JC

Before break, mentor Derly helped students come up with questions about Buddhism and Hinduism in Krakow’s social studies...
12/03/2024

Before break, mentor Derly helped students come up with questions about Buddhism and Hinduism in Krakow’s social studies class for newcomer students. Students were given words and punctuation symbols to formulate questions based on information they learned. For example, Meditation | Hinduism | part of | ? became, “Is meditation part of the Hinduism way of practice? Students assessed their own learning by answering their own questions.

[image of Derly standing beside a student looking over them as they write on their worksheet.]
📫 JC
📸 JC

Mentor Paige along with her partner teacher Karen facilitated part one of her critical thinking workshop in their AVID c...
12/03/2024

Mentor Paige along with her partner teacher Karen facilitated part one of her critical thinking workshop in their AVID classes. Paige had students identify their passions and why they’re passionate about it. Students were engaged and came up with various topics that move them. Later, students will research more information about their topics, then team up to debate with one another using the skills they learned. This workshop prompted students to think for themselves and finding credible sources to back up their claims.

[image of Paige standing in front of classroom pointing towards something, other image is of Paige looking at slideshow that reads “examples of finding your issues.”
📫 JC
📸 SF

Today mentor Sabina facilitated a workshop on college 101 facts, basic financial information with a fun jeopardy in teac...
11/22/2024

Today mentor Sabina facilitated a workshop on college 101 facts, basic financial information with a fun jeopardy in teacher Ursula’s class at Alliance. It was invigorating to witness students being really into it, buzzing in fast to answer questions. It shows that they learned a lot from the presentation. The competitive spirit in the room was contagious, and you could tell everyone was having fun and laughing while learning.

In the middle of the game, the teacher was so impressed that she told her students, she’d want to include Jeopardy games in her future lessons. It was evident she saw this workshop as engaging for her students and is a different way of accessing their learning.

[image of Sabina in front of a class with slideshow that reads FAFSA while the second photo is the back of two students standing in front of a projected jeopardy board.]
📫 JC
📸 MFP

Address

501 N. Dixon Street
Portland, OR
97213

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm

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