Before school let out for summer, more than 40 community organizations, business leaders and local universities took part in Miller Intermediate School’s GEAR UP Career Day.

GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a six-year grant that is designed to encourage students to pursue education after the K-12 experience. It is aimed at not only ensuring high school graduation, but enrollment in college. At the start of the 2007-08 school year, the program was launched at Jackson, Queens, South Houston, Miller, San Jacinto, Southmore, Park View and Beverly Hills intermediate schools and will follow the students through their high school graduations.

“Our career day was able to provide our seventh and eighth grade students with an opportunity to learn about a wide spectrum of careers,” said Miller’s GEAR UP coordinator Neitzy Retta. “GEAR UP’s goal is to push students to obtain a post-secondary education, and by providing a career day, it helps students understand why they need that education.”

The career day was divided into two parts of individual classroom presenters and an expo to target all seventh and eighth grade students. The expo was open to both grade levels and included representatives from San Jacinto College, Pasadena ISD Police Department, Army, Texas Chiropractic College, HEB, construction, Go Center, Houston Chronicle, home builders, photographers, adolescent counseling, insurance companies, and Rice University and University of Houston. Miller students who won a college poster contest also were able to have a station in the expo of their winning college.

“The information these businesses and individuals provide to our students is priceless,” said Retta. “Our students don’t always have the opportunity to interact with professionals, so this is a great chance for them to network. It is also an opportunity for individuals in the community to learn what a great influence they can be on our students.”

Houston Community College also provided training sessions for the career day through its Mobile Go Center. Mobile Go Centers, funded in part by an $800,000 grant from the AT&T Foundation to the College for All Texans Foundation, aims to close the gaps in Texas college participation and success by 2015. The eight-year grant will fund technology for a fleet of mobile education resources, equipping vans with Internet-accessible computers and high speed Internet connections that are designed to bring college-related information, motivation and assistance to students and their families.

Dr. Susan Stabe, a pediatrician with the Kelsey-Seybold Clinic, was one of 15 presenters who spoke to the eighth graders for the event and said a patient’s mother asked her to participate.

“I enjoy sharing what I do with others, and I appreciated the opportunity to talk with doctors or mentors when I was growing up, so I hope I offered some insight for those interested in a medical career,” she said. “I think that with hard work, most of our goals can be met, but we need to help our young adults with career information early on so they have the time to investigate many of life’s possibilities.”

Other speakers included individuals from NASA, Global Healthcare Alliance, Inc., and the Fairmont Pet Hospital.

Retta said she feels “blessed” to have had so many local professionals dedicate their time to the career day and the students.

“Most professionals do not have the time to dedicate for a public school career day, and I feel fortunate that these professionals found the time to interact with our students,” she said. “The information they provide is very important for our students to hear, and it truly makes a difference in the educational decisions our students make. They all helped expose our students to new worlds of opportunity, and we can’t thank them enough.”