College Public Service Announcements

Today, we viewed examples of public service announcements -- from TV and student-created websites. Then, students broke into marketing teams (the boys led by Mr. Wu, the girls assisted by Ms. Rymer) to create PSAs that would convince high school students to go to college. Students used video cameras and iMovie to produce their PSAs (thank you, Mr. Rigaud, for the loan of your computer!) Check out each team's work below.

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By Benson Buah, Christian Geddes, Elijah McClain, Gerony Medina, and Daniel Morales

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by Grace Dominguez, Karise Fyfield, and Nimia Guerrero

Our College Profiles

Today, we created our college profiles. We chose the criteria that mattered most to us in choosing a college, and described our preferences within each criteria. Our choices were collaged around our pictures to create a poster that will guide us throughout high school. Check back soon for a podcast dedicated to our college profiles.

Our Apple Store Experience

Today we went to Soho to take in workshops on GarageBand and Podcasting at the Apple Store. While we were there, we used PhotoBooth to take our pictures with various effects. Some of our products are displayed here.

Flickr Slideshow

New Jersey College Trip

GEAR UP sponsored our trip to New Jersey. We visited and toured two colleges there -- Seton Hall University and Rider University. As you can see from our video, we learned a lot and had a great time on our trip. As always, thank you GEAR UP!

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Clips and photos from our recent visit to two New Jersey colleges.

MySpace Podcast

Do you MySpace? Are you addicted to it? Are you wary of it? Your answers to these questions may depend on which side of the digital divide you're on. Over the last few weeks, we have interviewed teachers, students, and administrators at our school about their own points of view on the issues and controversies surrounding the MySpace community. Listen to our podcast, and tell us what you think!

National Society of Black Engineers

Today, we attended the second annual event, "Engineering the World: Engineers' Impact on the Globe," sponsored by the Black Professionals at Turner and The National Society of Black Engineers -- Alumni Extension, Central Jersey Chapter and New York 'XL' Chapter. We made contacts with many role models, attended sessions on money management and careers in engineering, and participated in a simulated show production on a CNN television set.

Visiting with Pros

Today we headed south to visit the podcasters at the Lower East Side Girls Club. We checked out their podcasting booth, looked at their equipment, and learned a little more about our own. Renee gave us tips for getting through our struggles with procrastination. Listen to our recording of the podcast we made at her booth, using our new iRiver T30 recorder.

Fordham University Basketball Game

Students visited Fordham University this Saturday to take in the campus, dine in the student dining hall, and attend a basketball game. Go Rams!

Flickr Slideshow

NYU Tour

Our Gear Up students braved the coldest day of the winter to tour the campus of NYU with alumna Lindsey. Along the way, we got to shoot some hoops in the Rec Center and lunch at the student dining hall.

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Camera Work and Video Production by Danny AKA DJ Platano

The Samsung Experience

The Mott Hall 3 GEAR UP students visited the Samsung Showroom to check out Samsung's latest technology.

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Camera Work by Danny AKA DJ Platano

College Panel

Five GEAR UP alums came to our school to talk to us about their experiences as college freshmen. Among other topics, they discussed preparing for, choosing, and making the most of college. We were interested in what they had to say about college life. Check out a video podcast of the College Panel below.

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Camera work and Video Production by Danny AKA DJ Platano

Our First Podcast

GEAR UP Podcasting at Mott Hall 3 is up and running. Our eighth graders are meeting on Tuesday afternoons (and Thursdays ... and lunch periods ... and study halls) to conduct interviews and organize and edit audio files for our upcoming podcasts.

GEAR UP is a college-awareness program funded through the Bronx Institute at Lehman College. Our eighth graders have learned a lot about preparing for their future through our program. Our podcasting blog will give us the opportunity to showcase some of experiences, as well as cover news and events that affect the GEAR UP student community and beyond.

We invite you to listen to our very first podcast.