A Warren County student who participates in the Tennessee Tech GEAR Up program is headed to this year’s Super Bowl after submitting a video highlighting the value of the program.
Warren County Eighth Grader Eduardo Mendez won two tickets to the Super Bowl after submitting a video for the nationwide Student Success Agency contest. GEAR UP Executive Director Frank Tittle said the GEAR UP program helps students in rural communities prepare for post-secondary opportunities, and he called Mendez’s opportunity an exciting opportunity.
“Just the opportunity to experience something outside of Warren County,” Tittle said. “You know, an experience that he may never get in his life, or may not have ever had the opportunity to do that without the program, it’s just amazing.”
Tittle said the GEAR UP program currently works with Clay County Schools, Overton County Schools, Oneida Special School District, and Warren County Schools. Tittle said he believes that Mendez going to the Super Bowl will increase participation from other school districts in the Upper Cumberland.
“Even if it is the intention for them initially is to have an opportunity to win something like that, I think the value that they will see in gaining a mentor and gaining somebody that they can trust to talk to and talk about how school is going and talk about how academics are going, and even get academic support,” Tittle said. “I think the value in that could be so meaningful to a lot of these students.”
Tittle said GEAR UP has a site coordinator who is assigned to each of the four school districts and meets with students weekly, doing different activities and exposing students to different post-secondary opportunities. Tittle said these coordinators act a sa mentor for students from 7th grade to their first year in post-secondary school.
Tittle said helping students in rural communities is the main goal of the program.
“You have students that are coming from there, that their families for generations may have not known anything but you know, this is what we do, we grow up, we graduate, we go to work at our family business or on our family farm, or something local, Tittle said. “And you know, it may not inject into that system as much as it could if the students you know, go to college or they go to a trade school, or they go to get that post-secondary education piece and then potentially come back to the community at that point, and they may be able to inject the area with new businesses aor new business ideas that could help tha to community.”
Tittle said he is thankful that Mendez will have the opportunity to go to the Super Bowl thanks to the program. Tittle said he hopes the program can continue to help prepare students for post-secondary opportunities years into the future.