GearUp Academy - Invictus Program
A Growth Mindset Program for Students ages 17.5 - 21
On the quest to earn a high school diploma or GED ?
Are you between the ages of 17.5 - 21 years old?
This program could be an opportunity to change your life!
In the world of education, once a student reaches the point of no return in their K-12 career where HOPE is lost to graduate on time, the pressures of life enter to a degree of anguish, and "Life Happened" to the point of overwhelming frustration, the GearUp Academy INVICTUS program is here to empower a plan with action!
This is a program for students who are 17.5 - 21 years of age who are sick of being sick of it and want to move on with their life and earn that "piece of paper" called a high school diploma or GED to further their life goals.
Our Program exemplifies the ethos of GearUp2Lead standards of
- Growth Mindset
- Empathy
- Action
- Responsibility
If you know anyone who has dropped out of high school, at the end of their rope, and ready for a change, aged 17.5 -21, this may be the program for them.
INVICTUS - means unconquerable, and with that, this program has been developed to help empower students to go from DEFEATED to CELEBRATED, from VICTIM to VICTOR.
Please reach out for more information.
Thank you
Mr. T
If you know anyone who has dropped out of high school, at the end of their rope, and ready for a change, aged 17.5 -21, this may be the program for them.
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Overview of program
The GearUp2Lead INVICTUS program is a free program run through the GearUp2Lead program in partnership with the Fenton Area School District in Fenton, Michigan, USA.
Program campuses are in Flint and Fenton, Michigan.
Each student who is willing to commit to change their current state of despair will be on an individualized curriculum plan with the ultimate goal of a high school diploma or GED, whatever one that suits the student best depending on the variables at hand.
The program meets one time per week, with extensive evaluation, individualized learning plan, resume, career building, and presentation skills that will ultimately result in graduation and a plan for success.
How to Qualify
2- Be ready to change your current status of schooling from defeated to celebrated
3- Come to an Informational meeting
4- Register / Transcripts
5- ,Interview
6- Commit to the program
7- Change your Life and Succeed !
For Further Information please contact Mr. T
Richard Kerry Thompson
The INVICTUS program is an individualized program with proven success.
Led by Mr. T, AKA Mr. Richard Kerry Thompson, who has driven hundreds of post-high school students to succeed in his 20 plus year career in the Alternative/Nontraditional field.
Email: rktgearupacademy@gmail.com
Phone: 810-262-1042
Twitter: @RKT_HOPE
Empirical Data and research
Dropouts, Employment, and the GED
Dropouts, Employment, and the GED
Objective: Contrast the employment prospects for those who have differing levels of educational attainment
Contrary to the stereotype, many high school dropouts work (albeit at primarily unpleasant, low-wage jobs). Historically, though, the unemployment rate for dropouts has been quite a bit higher than for high school graduates; for example, in 2008 the unemployment rate for dropouts was nearly 1.5 times as high as it was for high school graduates, 9 versus 5.7 percent (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). Most recently, however, with the current recession, employment prospects are bleak for both groups: 29 percent for recent high school graduates, and 30 percent for recent high school dropouts. White dropouts are more likely to find work than Black dropouts, and male dropouts are more likely to be employed than female dropouts (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). This latter statistic makes sense because many girls who drop out of school do because they have had a baby. Assuming they can find a job, at first dropouts earn almost as much as high school graduates. However, dropouts find themselves in dead-end jobs and their salaries do not rise, whereas those of graduates do; the wage gap, therefore, widens with age. The median salary for high school dropouts of all ages was $488/week in 2014; for high school graduates, it was $668/week (or roughly a third again as much). For those with a bachelor’s degree, it was $1,101/week (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015a). In part because of their poor employment situation, a large majority of dropouts come to regret their decision to leave high school without a diploma (Bridgeland et al., 2006). Because of this, a significant number eventually choose to study for and then take the GED test.
The GED is a set of tests designed to indicate whether an individual has high school level competency in reading, writing, social studies, math, and science. It is a pathway to receiving a “high school diploma” once one has dropped out. In 2012, more than 600,000 individuals took and more than 400,000 passed the exam.
How do these individuals fare? Not as well as traditional high school graduates—they are less likely to go on to college and very much less likely to graduate from one. They earn considerably less than those with traditional diplomas, irrespective of their sex or ethnicity. Still, they earn considerably more than high school dropouts, making it a worthwhile pursuit.
Research on Positive Psychology & Learned Helplessness and Cognitive Behavior
We can help change this by empowering success!!!
Learned Helplessness in Education
The topic of learned helplessness comes up quite regularly in the education field. There’s quite a bit of interest in how early academic failure or low academic self-esteem can impact later success, and how the relationship can be influenced to enhance chances of success.
Learned helplessness in students creates a vicious cycle. Those who feel that they are unable to succeed are unlikely to put much effort into their schoolwork, which decreases their chances of success, leading to even less motivation and effort (Catapano, n.d.).
This vicious cycle may culminate in a student having virtually no motivation to learn a subject and no competence in that subject. Even worse, it could lead to a more generalized sense of helplessness in which the student has no belief in her ability and no motivation to learn any subject at school.
The reasons students give to explain their failure or success is critical in school. If a student believes he failed because the teacher hates him or he’s simply stupid, he is blaming factors that are not within his control and is likely to develop a greater sense of helplessness. If a student believes she failed because she didn’t study hard enough, she is blaming factors that are within her control, which is much less likely to lead to an overall sense of helplessness related to school.
Luckily, there are a few strategies that can help prevent students from learning to be habitually helpless, including:
- Teachers providing praise and encouragement based on the student’s abilities (e.g., “You’re good at math” or “You have a knack for this subject, I can tell”) to help them believe they are good at these tasks or subjects;
- Teachers providing praise and encouragement based on the student’s efforts (e.g., “Your hours of hard work paid off on this test!”) to help them believe their effort will make a difference;
- Working on smart, individual goal-setting with students to help them learn that goals can be achieved and that outcomes are often within their realm of influence (Catapano, n.d.).
In addition, Edutopia’s Andrew Miller (2015) suggests a few very important strategies for teachers and parents:
- Curate and create learning resources (which include people, books, websites, and community organizations, among other resources) to help students become comfortable with not knowing the answer and with looking for the answer in the right places;
- Use questions for learning rather than about learning (e.g., use questions that encourage the student to think about his own learning and thought patterns instead of just thinking about what he knows);
- Stop giving students the answers. Instead, help them learn it at their own pace and through their own methods—they’ll be more likely to remember it this way!
- Allow them to fail. Failing and trying again is vital for children—as long as you are there to support them when they fail.
In addition to these strategies, later on in this piece we’ll discuss some insights into treating or “curing” learned helplessness that can be applied to students.
What are the stages of learned helplessness?
Some common symptoms of learned helplessness in children include:
- Failure to ask for help.
- Frustration.
- Giving up.
- Lack of effort.
- Low self-esteem.
- Passivity.
- Poor motivation.
- Procrastination.