MANSFIELD — Nikia Fletcher has seen a mindset shift among students at Mansfield Senior High School.
For years, school district staff have been encouraging students to think about their future. They’ve urged students early and often to think about the four ‘E’s — enrollment, employment, enlistment and entrepreneurship — and which might best fit their situation and interest after high school.
School officials say those conversations are paying off.
“The students are thinking and talking about college and employment more and earlier than they have in the past,” said Fletcher, the district’s director of college and career readiness.
“They are starting to understand the pathways to college — whether they go directly or end up there through the desire to attain a dream job or promotion.”
She credits that success in part to programs like GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs).
The federally-funded initiative focuses on helping low-income and first-generation college students prepare for college and receive the support needed to succeed in postsecondary education.
GEAR UP isn’t the only college and career program at Mansfield Middle School and Mansfield Senior High. Students also have access to College Now’s impact! and The Ohio State University’s Upward Bound, another federally-funded program.
Nevertheless, Fletcher called GEAR UP a “trailblazer initiative” for the district.
“GEAR UP is doing an amazing job providing that initial support in the middle and high school while connecting students with the future supports that align to their interests,” she said.
GEAR UP has a three-person staff consisting of site director Effie James and advisors Malon Samuel and Eli Jordan. The trio works from inside a classroom in the combined middle and high school building.
GEAR UP is wrapping up its third year and does not receive any funding from Mansfield City Schools. It’s completely funded through a federal grant, awarded to the district in 2021.
At the time, district officials were told the program would receive about $1.89 million in federal grant funds over the next seven years.
“We don’t necessarily have a college-going atmosphere in this building,” Fletcher told Richland Source in 2021.
In the program’s first year at Mansfield Senior, the percentage of seniors to complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form doubled.
FAFSA completion rates grew from 32 percent in 2023 to 44 percent in 2024, James said. His goal is to hit 50 percent this year.
The percentage of students applying to college, earning scholarships and participating in the program’s Tyger Signing Day program is also on the rise.
Program provides college advising, career exploration workshops
Site director Effie James also said around one in four seniors in the class of 2023 completed a college application. The following year, it was more than half. This year, that tally sits at 78 percent.
GEAR UP hosted a submission day in the fall at the Mid-Ohio Educational Service Center, James said. Participants learned about test prep, financial aid and filled out applications for two local colleges — North Central State and the Ohio State University’s Mansfield campus.
“We try to take every single senior on submission day,” James said. “Our goal is 100 percent of students apply to some college.
“It doesn’t commit them to going to that school, but we want to give them that option.”
During this school year alone, the program has provided one-on-one advising to 182 juniors and seniors.
More than 764 students, mostly juniors and seniors, have gone through in-classroom workshops. The GEAR UP uses curriculum from CollegeNow of Greater Cleveland to cover topics like career exploration, picking the right college major and applying for financial aid.
More than 520 middle and high school students have participated in off-campus activities, primarily college and museum visits, lead by the GEAR UP team.
“A lot of people say, ‘Everybody doesn’t go to college,’” James said. “We know that and that’s great, but everybody needs an advocate. We are the post-secondary advocate.
“We want to encourage our students and let them know that post-secondary education still has a place and is still very vital in this society.”
While GEAR UP’s primarily objective is to support college-bound students, James and his team occasionally go beyond that mission.
For the last three years, the program has hosted Tyger Signing Day, an event that celebrates seniors who have a plan in place for after graduation — whether that’s college, a job or joining the U.S. military.
Tyger Signing Day is optional for students, but more have opted to participate each year. It started with just 17 students in the class of 2022. This year, 81 students registered to participate.
The GEAR UP staff has also hosted workshops focused on trade school and certificate programs.
This year, GEAR UP spearheaded an attendance initiative. Each quarter, one grade at the middle school and one grade at the high school gets free ice cream for having the highest attendance rate in their grade band.
“Once they found out that every student in that class actually got a cup of ice cream … the next (quarter), students were wanting to know where they were,” James said.
“Each week, we had it on the announcements, we put the graphs up — where they were, who was in the lead. They wanted to know.”
Federal budget proposal called for defunding GEAR UP program
While local school officials believe GEAR UP is having a positive impact, changing attitudes at the federal level could lead to funding cuts for the program.
President Donald Trump called for eliminating GEAR UP and similar federally-funded initiatives in a budget proposal released last month.
The proposal by the Office of Management and Budget called for reducing federal non-defense spending by 22.6 percent — approximately $163 billion each year.
That includes cutting the $1.579 billion budget for GEAR UP and other TRIO programs, which are designed to identify and provide services for individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The budget proposal isn’t binding, but will go to Congress for consideration as it works to create a budget for the next fiscal year, according to reporting from Inside Higher Ed.
Trump’s budget proposal argued TRIO and GEAR UP are no longer relevant because access to college is no longer the obstacle it once was for low-income students. It also stated that colleges should be using their own resources to recruit students and help them succeed through to graduation.
“TRIO and GEAR UP are a relic of the past when financial incentives were needed to motivate Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to engage with low-income students and increase access,” the proposal states.
“The lack of action by IHEs also meant that states and local school districts needed additional support to prepare low-income students for college.”
Fletcher said she believes the program is still relevant to the student population at Mansfield City Schools, primarily through the awareness it generates.
“(Our students) are not who most people think they are — they are creative, smart, innovative, intuitive, curious, and thoughtful,” Fletcher said via email.
“What our kids don’t always have is an awareness of all of the possibilities around them and similarly the support/direction to get to the possibilities. Some of them find their way; others begin to model what they see (good and bad).”
James said the budget proposal is concerning, but he’s trying to stay positive. He cited conversations with Carlos Bing, senior director of GEAR UP for Ohio’s Department of Higher Education.
“(Bing) said this is not the first time. Every other presidential cycle, GEAR UP funding is threatened on a federal scale,” James said.
He added that Bing told him that in the past, threats to GEAR UP funding have been met with an overwhelming responses from schools, students and families that have benefited from the program.
“Each time they try to get rid of it, the response is so strong that GEAR UP ends up with more funding,” James said.
Regardless of what happens at the federal level, GEAR UP was designed to be a seven-year program. After that, it’s up to school districts to decide whether and how to continue funding the services.
“If it cannot be supported at the federal level, it is my hope that other funding opportunities will see the value and support,” Fletcher said. “It is worth it.”
