TCSG office to be housed at Wiregrass’ Cook Campus. Stacey Prescott, GEAR UP Georgia Program Coordinator is returning to South Georgia.
Adel, GA – Wiregrass Georgia Technical College and the Technical College System of Georgia (TCSG) have partnered to house a state office here in South Georgia. The Cook County Workforce Development Center of Wiregrass Tech will be the new office of TCSG’s GEAR UP Georgia Program Coordinator, Stacey Prescott. This office is moving from Atlanta to the Cook Campus and will have a presence across the state and make TCSG more effective in achieving the mission and supporting the students served by the GEAR UP program.
Prescott is no stranger to Wiregrass Tech. She worked for the college from 2011 until 2017 serving as an Adjunct Psychology Instructor, and then an Adult Education Instructor/Transition Specialist/ESOL Instructor/ and Remediation Class Instructor. Her last position with Wiregrass was as a High School Coordinator with the Dual Enrollment Program. These positions with the college helped prepare Prescott for her current position with TCSG.
The GEAR UP Program stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. Prescott manages the GEAR UP Georgia grant from the TCSG perspective. She works with students as early as 7th grade as well as those who have experienced foster care or homelessness in a variety of ways. The grants follow and give active support to students all the way through the first year of college. Other services the grant provides include: keeping the students on track to graduate high school on time, education about college and career opportunities for both during and after high school, and supporting students taking Dual Enrollment classes by providing necessary equipment for courses and much more.
When asked how she felt about returning to South Georgia and the Cook Campus of Wiregrass Prescott shared, “Working in South Georgia puts someone at the state level in a part of the state other than Atlanta. This makes our leadership team more accessible to our partners who are further away from Atlanta. I am able to be on the ground and attend functions here to show that we are just as invested in the success of the students in South Georgia as we are in those closer to the system offices.”
The GEAR UP grant is a seven-year federal grant which is in its third year. Throughout the life of the grant the plan is to extend services into more counties than those presently being served, and making this service available to as many Georgia students as possible. Wiregrass Georgia Technical College is a unit of the Technical College System of Georgia.
