As a student at Oklahoma City’s Northwest Classen High School, Fabiola McComb wasn’t sure about the path to college. She heard classmates talk about school applications and campus visits, all while wondering how it worked.

Although she had a supportive family who helped her with homework and showed up for her activities, higher education was unknown territory.

“My parents always encouraged me to work hard, be humble and follow my dreams,” McComb says. “They gave me everything they could.”

But by the time she reached her junior year of high school, thoughts of her future became stressful. “College was something I wanted, but figuring out how to get there was completely unfamiliar.” 

That changed with GEAR UP—Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness through Undergraduate Programs—a federally funded series offered at middle and high schools through the University of Oklahoma’s K20 Center for Educational and Community Renewal and the Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education.

McComb was part of a cohort that received resources to help her and her family prepare for the future, including FAFSA training, college application workshops and campus visits. GEAR UP became the start of a journey that took her from high school to a bachelor’s degree in education and even the rank of captain in the U.S. Army Reserve.

During one campus visit, McComb’s mentor took several students on a small-group tour that included the financial aid office, library, cafeteria and residence halls. “I remember that personalization made me feel more comfortable. I was really intimidated; having support made me feel like I could manage college.” 

Across Oklahoma, thousands of students have followed a similar path. For three decades, the K20 Center has rewritten what’s possible for Oklahoma students, families and communities through programs like GEAR UP, sponsored by U.S. Department of Education grants designed to increase the number of low-income students prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

When one person in a family crosses that threshold, K20 has found, others tend to follow.

A Shift That Runs in Families

Since receiving its first GEAR UP grant in 2008, the K20 Center has worked in 136 under-resourced schools across Oklahoma—urban, rural and suburban—tailoring its approach to fit the distinct needs of each community and helping some 36,000 students envision a future that could include college, career-tech training, certifications and long-term stability. 

The effects K20 sees aren’t measured in a single student.

“Students who go through the program are more likely to graduate from high school and enroll in college,” says Scott Wilson, associate director of innovative learning at the K20 Center and primary investigator for OU’s GEAR UP grants. “When you get one person in the family to college, it’s more likely that their siblings are going to go. Then, you’ve changed the trajectory of an entire family.”

That impact compounds over time. Younger siblings of GEAR UP alumni often arrive at high schools that were transformed during a seven-year grant period, still benefiting from professional development, enriched curriculum and elevated expectations seeded years earlier.

More Than a Mentorship Program

Earning a GEAR UP grant is, in itself, a competitive achievement, Wilson adds. Hundreds of applications are submitted each funding cycle nationally; only a handful are selected. OU’s K20 Center has been awarded seven GEAR UP grants over the past 18 years, reflecting a model the U.S. Department of Education has repeatedly judged worthy of taxpayer investment.

What sets the OU K20 Center’s approach apart is its holistic investment, he says. Rather than focusing solely on students, K20 works within an ecosystem of families, educators, school counselors and community members all building a culture designed to outlast the grant itself.

For many students, the first challenge is simply understanding how college works. GEAR UP helps demystify the process, introducing students and their families to everything from financial aid packages to campus resources, college selection and professional networking. Each student visits at least five post-secondary campuses, including community colleges, state schools and technology centers, making abstract possibilities concrete.

“At first, the visits felt more like fun field trips,” McComb says. Over time, she realized, they were helping her imagine a future.

“Every student can go to college or a continuing education program. It may not be OU. It may be a community college or a career and technology education center. But there is something for everybody,” says Leslie Williams, K20 Center director.

Williams says the program’s goal isn’t to funnel every student toward a four-year degree. Instead, it’s to ensure they graduate from high school and move on to some form of postsecondary education, whether that happens at age 18 or several years later.

“Post-secondary education is expensive,” she says. “We want to make sure families and students have knowledge of how to pay for it—and that every student has the choice and skills to be successful if and when they decide to go.”

Meeting Families Where They Are

Engaging parents and guardians is one of the program’s most critical and challenging goals.

 “Parents lead busy lives,” Wilson says. “They have a lot of commitments.”

To bridge that gap, K20 developed microlearning platforms; two- to three-minute digital lessons modeled on the quick-burst format used on social media. Through an app called QUEST, parents and guardians can learn about FAFSA, Oklahoma’s Promise tuition scholarships and college enrollment at their own pace, earning badges to track progress. 

“This isn’t in place of family events, because we want to meet them,” Wilson says. “For those parents who can’t come in person, it provides a platform where they can get the same important content in a format they’re accustomed to.”

K20 also offers START, an augmented reality tool providing a virtual campus visit experience—a critical resource for first-generation families who might never have set foot on a college campus and who, research shows, often overestimate the cost of higher education by two or three times.

Investing in Educators, Too

K20’s commitment extends into the classroom. Year-long mentorships pair master educators with newer teachers, while asynchronous micro-credentialing programs let educators build classroom-ready skills on their own schedule. The goal is to keep experienced teachers in high-turnover schools longer, Wilson says, improving continuity for students who need that stability most.

The Full Circle

Williams says the measure of GEAR UP’s success isn’t captured in enrollment numbers alone; it’s visible in the development of a college- and career-ready culture within transformed schools and in students who travel full circle, like McComb. 

Today, McComb has joined K20’s efforts as an on-staff career exploration specialist and is helping to guide the next generation of students who don’t yet know about college and other post-high school opportunities.

“I will always be grateful to GEAR UP for helping me reach a dream that once felt out of reach. The program gave me tools, confidence and an incredible mentor,” McComb says. “Now I get to share those same gifts with others, and that’s really fulfilling. What I’m doing is making an impact.” 

Tami Althoff is content manager for OU Education Services.