KHS Helps Students GEAR UP

Faculty members from the Kinesiology and Health Science Department at USU recently hosted a group of high school students from Wendover, Nevada.

“It is a lot of fun to have them visit us here,” said Dennis Dolny, the KHS department head. “Our professors enjoy showing students what they are researching. We love it.”

The students rotate through six different activities exploring topics ranging from how the brain controls muscles to how balance is affected by one’s eyes being open or closed.

The students all attend West Wendover Jr/Sr High School and were able to make the trip as part of the Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate (GEAR UP) program.

GEAR UP serves students through a grant program from the U.S. Department of Education and increases the number of low-income students who are prepared to enter and succeed in postsecondary education.

“Most of these kids had never seen a college campus before this program,” said Cody Ghiggia, a GEAR UP site coordinator and teacher at West Wendover. “This gives them a chance to see what opportunities are out there that they wouldn’t get any other way.”

The hope is that showing students the research being done at USU will spark an interest that will carry them to a college degree.

“These are kids who don’t have experience with college and don’t see a lot of people with college degrees,” Ghiggia said. “Coming here and visiting with these professors opens their eyes to the possibilities that are out there in the world.”