GEAR UP Parent Leadership Award winner Raquel Gonzalez from the City University of New York Middle Grades Initiative/GEAR UP Program, (standing, first from left) with other parent award winners and GEAR UP representatives

Raquel Gonzalez, a supporter of the City University of New York Middle Grades Initiative/GEAR UP program, was one of five parents in the nation honored at this year’s NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference in Washington, D.C. Gonzalez was recognized for her leadership and significant commitment to helping prepare students in her community for postsecondary education. Gonzalez has been extremely active in the parent association and reaches out personally to her fellow parents, particularly those within her local Spanish-speaking immigrant community, to encourage their involvement. This parental award program was established by the College Board as part of its ongoing commitment to equity and access for all students.

It’s no secret that parental involvement is critical to any child’s academic and social success; vast research supports this. But getting busy working parents to make the effort to carve out the time required can be challenging. CollegeEd® and the National Council for Community and Education Partnerships/GEAR UP are working hard to help parents understand the many ways they can be involved in their children’s education.

However, these organizations realize that their efforts can only succeed when parents from communities across the United States demonstrate significant commitment and leadership in collaboration with their local GEAR UP initiatives and school districts. NCCEP/GEAR UP honored Gonzalez and four other outstanding parents — Maria León from the California State University-Los Angeles Project GEAR UP; Debra June Hill from the Nevada State GEAR UP; Wanda Taylor from the Chicago GEAR UP Alliance; and Dianna Lee Sampson from the University of Washington GEAR UP project in Toppenish.

“Raquel has shown great leadership with the Parent Advisory Committee — volunteering her time to speak with less-active parents, organizing our parent conferences and serving on our hiring committee,” said Ciji Portis, project director for CUNY MGI/GEAR UP. “We greatly appreciate Raquel’s involvement and are proud that she is being honored for her efforts.”

GEAR UP is a school-college partnership that helps prepare low-income and minority students for postsecondary education. Serving 1.5 million students nationwide, local GEAR UP sites provide a variety of services to students’ families, ranging from workshops on parenting, financial aid, college admissions, and state and local standards to building the capacity of parents to be true leaders in their community and advocates for their children and schools.

VP Bob Alig

I am pleased to “return to my College Board roots” as your interim middle states regional vice president. I look forward to reconnecting with all of you over the course of the next few weeks. As I write this, I am just returning from travel throughout the region, meeting with chief state school officers and their teams, delivering the good news – by way of the College-Bound Senior Reports – that more of our students are being prepared for college success and opportunity. These conversations always invigorate my colleagues and me, as we get to see firsthand the terrific progress and commitment of our partners across the K-16 continuum.

The new school year has arrived and, with it, a new schedule of Fall Counselor Workshops. Traditionally offered only in September and October – the most challenging time of year for many counselors – these workshops will now be offered year round to ensure that more counselors have the opportunity to reconnect, share best practices, and learn from us and from each other. This also gives us the opportunity to meet with more of our counselors and hear how we might better support them in their vital work. In light of this new approach, the name has been changed to Counselors First Workshops, reflecting our commitment to supporting counselors across the region. Please contact MSRO’s Alison Dufner at (610) 227-2537 or adufner@collegeboard.org for more details.

The Middle States Regional Council will meet Oct. 6-7 in New York to make further preparations for the 2009 Middle States Regional Forum and discuss other pertinent issues. The meeting will be held at the College Board’s main offices at 45 Columbus Avenue. Many regional council members have never visited our New York office, and we thought this would be a terrific opportunity for them to meet our senior leadership team, including Gaston, Herb Elish, Eric Cantor, Dorothy Sexton and others. I know our senior leadership team in New York is anxious to welcome our council members and learn firsthand of your great work on behalf of the Board.

The 2009 Middle State Regional Forum will be held Feb. 10–12 at the Renaissance Harborplace Hotel in Baltimore. The keynote speaker for the awards luncheon will be Clifford Adelman, a senior associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy, who spent nearly 30 years at the U.S. Department of Education and wrote the background study on which A Nation at Risk commission based its high school curriculum recommendations. We will offer more details about the regional forum in the next issue of Connection.

In conjunction with the Regional Forum in Baltimore, MSRO’s Ellen Tatalias and Alison Dufner are solidifying plans for a second leadership summit to be held on Friday, Feb. 13. For more details, contact Alison at (610) 227-2537 or adufner@collegeboard.org or Ellen at (610) 227-2551 or etatalias@collegeboard.org.

Again, I am happy to be back as your RVP. Please let me know if there is anything you need from me or my colleagues. I can be reached at (610) 227-2577 or balig@collegeboard.org.

As of the July 1 deadline, the CollegeKeys Compact™ had 475 institutions on the final roll of charter members for this important initiative. This number includes 137 colleges, 311 schools, 18 non-profits and nine agencies. One hundred and five of the charter institutions are from the Middle States Region. The number continues to grow and, currently, there are 492 institutions that have signed the Compact.

Click here to see entire list.

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Click here to see events and workshops in the Middle States region.