Amber Turner has dedicated the last two weeks to redefining her relationship with mathematics.
“Coming to this program gets me ready for my math classes next year,” said Miss Turner, 16, a rising junior at Tyner Academy of Math, Science and Technology.
Amber was one of 60 students who took part in GEAR UP, a summer program to help rising sophomores and juniors with geometry, algebra II and trigonometry, said program director Dr. Hunter Huckaby.
When the program started in 1999, only 20 percent of students from Howard School of Academics and Technology and Brainerd High School — two schools where most of the program’s students come from — graduated on time and went to college, Dr. Huckaby said. GEAR UP — which stands for “gaining early awareness and readiness for undergraduate programs” — wants to get that number to more than 50 percent, he said.