October 1, 2008

CONTACT: Kimberly Gormley, Director, Marketing & Communications
Email: Gormleyk@ohiocan.org; Office: 614.947.3504; Mobile: 614.668.2954

GEAR UP Ohio Selects Muskingum County Man for 2008 Leadership Award
 
Columbus, Ohio – This summer members of Ohio’s college access community were recognized for outstanding service and leadership in college access in Ohio. Among the acknowledgements was the 2008 GEAR UP Leadership Award, which annually recognizes an individual who exemplifies leadership and has demonstrated his or her commitment to assisting the GEAR UP team in meeting the overall goals of GEAR UP Ohio.

Chris Lacy of Scholarship Central at the Muskingum County Community Foundation accepted the 2008 GEAR UP Leadership Award before nearly 200 college access practitioners at the 2008 Ohio College Access and Success Conference.  

“Mr. Lacy has gone over and above the call of duty to assist the entire GEAR UP Ohio state-wide team with data collection and technical issues.  He is the epitome of a team player and his level of dedication is exemplary,” said Lisa Earley, GEAR UP Ohio Program Director as she helped present the award.  

In his position as a data specialist, Mr. Lacy supervises the entry of student tracking data into the Ohio College Access Network’s Web Enabled Student Tracking (WEST) database application. He prepares reports on services to students, teachers and parents for the annual GEAR UP federal performance report. Mr. Lacy is also responsible for creating newsletters and direct mail pieces, maintaining web sites and coordinating registration of classes, workshops, and conferences.

Ohio’s GEAR UP team is fortunate to have such dedicated members as Mr. Lacy who ensure that the goals of GEAR UP are continuously met. To date over 25,000 students have benefited from GEAR UP Ohio college access services across the eight communities; an accomplishment that will surely exceed the original six-year goal to reach 30,000 students. The dedication and success of the GEAR UP Ohio team is evidenced in the increased graduation rates, as well as the increased number of students passing the Ohio Graduation Test (OGT) across the GEAR UP sites.

GEAR UP Ohio is hosted by the Ohio College Access Network (OCAN). OCAN was founded in 1999, by KnowledgeWorks Foundation, in collaboration with the Ohio Board of Regents, the Ohio Department of Education and the Ohio Business Roundtable. OCAN works to establish college access programs across the state and is the first statewide coordinating body for college access programs in the nation. The goal of the organization is to help more Ohio students pursue postsecondary education through the work of local college access programs, which provide financial aid advising, last dollar grants, career guidance, and other services.  Currently, 36 college access programs serve nearly 200 of Ohio’s 612 school districts, and 17 private/parochial schools in 46 counties touching nearly 175,000 students annually.  For more information visit:  www.ohiocan.org.