UA News

Four UA graduate students have worked to help high school students interested in learning new media develop their writing skills.

Four University of Arizona graduate students, working through the UA Early Academic Outreach Office's GEAR UP Project, have helped give voice to high school students interested in learning new media and developing their writing skills.

Through an after school club called Fresh Ink, students from Sunnyside and Desert View High School meet to create works that are published online through two "Webzines," or online magazines.

The UA graduate students who coordinate Fresh Ink provide instruction to help the freshmen develop 21st century literacy skills, teach them how to develop personal digital stories – which combine audio and visual storytelling – and how to create blogs.

The student's work will be exhibited in a multimedia presentation Wednesday, March 25 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. in the Sunnyside High School Auditorium, as part of Pima Community College's "Discovering Southern Arizona" lecture series.

Rachel Lewis and Michael Sheehan are the UA coordinators working with the Sunnyside High School students and César Diaz and Susan Meyers are the coordinators working with the students at Desert View High School. 

They are all English graduate students in the UA College of Humanities and work half-time as graduate assistants for the GEAR UP Project.

"Through Fresh Ink and our other writing programs, we have the opportunity to build bridges for students between their high schools and the University community," said Rachel Lewis, who is pursuing a doctorate in rhetoric, composition and the teaching of English.

The idea to form a writing club with an emphasis on new media came from assessments the UA coordinators made based on student need, Lewis said.

"We decided to focus on 21^st century illiteracies – so we went more digital with this effort. We are finding that the students are attracted to the club by the opportunity to work online," Lewis added.   

In 2006, the UA Office of Early Academic Outreach was awarded a grant and partnered with Tucson Unified School District, Sunnyside Unified School District and Pima Community College to accomplish the goal of graduating 65 percent or more of a cohort of high school students currently enrolled in Desert View, Sunnyside, Cholla Magnet, Pueblo Magnet and Tucson Magnet High School.

The six-year college readiness program began when the students were in the 6th grade and will provide academic support to these students who will graduate in 2012.  

The Tucson GEAR UP Project has worked to develop sustainable programs within the 19 partner schools that focus on academic preparation for both students and teachers, which provide support and information to parents and academic and culturally relevant social support and access to college programs for students.

"We don't want these programs to disappear. Our goal is to develop programs that will be sustainable to help not only the original GEAR UP 2012 cohort graduate and be successful in college, but also to benefit any student who is enrolled in these schools thereafter," said Elizabeth Arnot-Hopffer, associate director of the Tucson GEAR UP project.

Looking toward that sustainability and graduation goal, a variety of innovative and imaginative GEAR UP programs such as Fresh Ink look to become a permanent part of the curriculum offered at the partnering schools.

Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, the Tucson GEAR UP Project is a collaboration among the UA, Pima Community College, Tucson Unified School District and Sunnyside Unified School District and numerous community and business partners.

As part of the UA Office of Early Academic Outreach, the mission of the Tucson GEAR UP Project is to prepare ethnic minority, low-income and first-generation students to enter and succeed in post-secondary education.