It's a month into summer, and Classroom Building 106 at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology has warmed in the heat of the day.

Kenzi Meeks, an outgoing 14-year-old, doesn't seem to mind. She props one elbow up on her desk and furiously scribbles notes as her teacher, Eva Bahnimptewa, clicks through a PowerPoint presentation.

Meeks is one of 225 high school students, the majority of them Native American, taking five weeks of academic courses to prepare for a post-secondary education.

GEAR UP, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, is a federally funded program that targets students from low-income and minority backgrounds who have not traditionally excelled at graduating from high school.

It's also a way to combat statistics that show minority and low-income students taking advanced courses less often than other students, said Bahnimptewa, who teaches communications in the program.

Bahnimptewa, a member of the Hopi tribe, grew up on a reservation in Arizona and recently graduated from the University of Arizona. It doesn't surprise her that Native American students lag behind the others in Advance Placement numbers.

It was only after "much pushing and prodding by my teachers, I signed up for AP courses," she said.

Some Native American students who are very capable of taking advanced courses might not because of the way they've been raised, she said.

"They're raised to be humble and not put themselves out there," she said. "As a Native American, you're viewed as humble and don't want to try and take too much credit for yourself."

The U.S. is also a race-based society, she said, meaning that people have certain expectations of each racial group.

"It's a society where minorities have the sense they shouldn't be in the higher courses," she said.

Stacy Phelps, program consultant for GEAR UP, said the program targets schools that have a high percentage of students on free or reduced lunches. The program is available to eligible middle schools during the year, but the summer program draws the most interest. While the question of who is responsible for improving minority and low income students' education is debated, GEAR UP targets four areas: students, families of students, the school system and higher education institutions, Phelps said.

"It looks at all the stakeholders working together and gets away from the finger pointing," he said.

The main mission is getting the students positioned well for college or some sort of post-secondary education, which is critical for this generation of students, he said.

"Things have evolved where you need some sort of post-secondary training," he said. " … Post-secondary helps you learn skills for lifelong learning."

According to the state Department of Education, only about 2 percent of students enrolled in South Dakota's state universities are Native American.

"It's something that can be overcome," Phelps said. "GEAR UP is bringing people together to understand what the common goal is."

The program isn't about helping those who have fallen behind, Phelps said, but pushing students to get ahead.

"We try to increase their confidence, make them more aware of what the opportunities are in higher education," he said. "We're not remediating students; we're jumping them forward into the next school year."

For the students in her class, Bahnimptewa sees how GEAR UP is introducing them to the future, especially for students living on a reservation.

"Some want to go to big universities away from the reservation," she said. "I know sometimes you get stuck debating if you should stay home because somebody needs you or go on and continue with education. It's a leaping stone to trying bigger things on their own."

Before she continues on with her lecture, Bahnimptewa shows video of a football game she attended at the University of Arizona. With the lights dimmed, images of the band and field and screaming crowd dance across the faces of her students. Maybe one of them will follow in her footsteps and attend college there. The bottom line, she said, is that they see the possibilities.

"I hope they learn they can do whatever they set out to do," she said.

Contact Kayla Gahagan at 394-8410 or kayla.gahagan@rapidcityjournal.com