GREENSBORO - North Carolina A&T State University has received $30,000 from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Inc., for the university' s GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs): MAH & PAH (Mother's at the Helm and Pappas at the Helm) College Initiative.

The program aims to help middle school students - specifically students from Ferndale and Griffin middle schools in High Point and Thomasville Middle School - pursue a college education. The program provides strategies for parental involvement, integration of technology, provisions for mentors and tutors, and summer enrichment activities.

"This academic year, rising eight graders will have to select an academic track of study that they will be required to follow throughout high school," said Dr. Miriam L. Wagner, coordinator of the program. "If students and their parents make these decisions frivolously, the long-term implications can be devastating."

Wagner says that the funds from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Inc. will help provide training sessions for the parents, and assist the students in deciding on their courses.

The Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Inc. was established in 1936 as a memorial to the youngest son of the founder of R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company. In its history, the Foundation, as the beneficiary of the income from the Zachary Smith Reynolds Trust and the W. N. Reynolds Trust, has made grants totaling more than $322 million to recipients in all of North Carolina's 100 counties. The Foundation currently gives special attention to certain focus areas: community-building and economic development; the environment; government, public policy and civic engagement; pre-collegiate education; and social justice and equity.

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