Three hundred sixty-two junior and senior GEAR UP students from 31 schools recently traveled to the Expo Center in McAlester, OK, to participate in an ACT workshop sponsored by Eastern Oklahoma State College’s GEAR UP program. The workshop was presented by Chad Cargill, Founder, and President of Cargill Consulting, Inc.

As a high school student, Cargill discovered that many scholarships were based on ACT scores; therefore, he took the ACT a total of eighteen times, raising his score from 19 to 32. He developed his ACT prep workshop based on his understanding of what is on the test and how to take it. During the presentation, Cargill shared test-taking strategies such as Stop-Go punctuation, Letter of the Day, and the math Plug-in technique. He also encouraged students to study for the ACT as well as their regular classroom activities. Students received ACT study materials and links to Cargill’s podcast and online guides.

Students attending were from Antlers, Atoka, Bokoshe, Buffalo Valley, Cameron, Canadian, Clayton, Coalgate, Crowder, Eufaula, Haileyville, Hartshorne, Howe, Indianola, Keota, Leflore, McAlester, McCurtain, Moyers, Panama, Porum, Poteau, Quinton, Rattan, Savanna, Spiro, Stringtown, Talihina, Whitesboro, Wilburton and Wister.

The event was sponsored by Eastern Oklahoma State College’s GEAR UP program. In 2017, Eastern recently received a $17 million federal GEAR UP grant and will serve over 3,000 students in 39 area schools for seven years.