GEAR UP Students Travel to Texas

Ninety-six junior and senior students boarded two buses (one leaving from Poteau and one from McAlester) to travel to Texas for an exciting adventure provided by EOSC (Eastern Oklahoma State College) GEAR UP. The trip is known as Tour of Texas, which allows partner schools’ students to travel south to tour various colleges and universities as well as the Texas Instruments North Campus Facility in Dallas.

Students traveling on the Poteau bus stopped at Texas A&M University-Commerce (TAMU). The university offers 144 total areas of study at the undergraduate, master’s and doctoral levels. TAMU- Commerce offers STEM undergraduate degrees in Applied Sciences, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Computer Information Systems, Engineering, Environmental Science, Mathematics, Physics, Pre-Med, Technology Management, and Wildlife Conservation Science. In addition, the university offers numerous other majors in humanities, education, agriculture, and much more.  From TAMU, the bus traveled to University of Dallas (UD). The university has been consistently ranked as one of the top regional universities and enjoys a spot in the list of the top 10 Catholic colleges in the West by U.S. News & World Report and in the top 15 Catholic colleges nationwide by Forbes. 

McAlester bus students toured the University of North Texas (UNT) campus in Denton. UNT is a public research university deeply committed to advancing educational excellence. From UNT, the bus traveled to University of Dallas (UD) where they received the same information as the Poteau bus.

The next morning, the groups toured TI (Texas Instruments). Members of the TI team provided hands–on activities, information about TI careers, and the history of the company. TI is an American technology company that designs and manufactures semiconductors, which are sold to electronics designers and manufacturers globally. Headquartered in Dallas, TI is one of the top ten semiconductor companies worldwide, based on sales volume. Texas Instruments’ focus is on developing analog chips and embedded processors, which accounts for more than 85 percent of their revenue. TI also produces TI digital light processing (DLP) and education technology products, including calculators, microcontrollers and multi-core processors. To date, TI has more than 43,000 patents worldwide.

From TI, the groups split and the Poteau bus toured University of North Texas (UNT) campus in Denton. And the McAlester group toured Grayson College in Grayson County, Texas. The Grayson acceptance rate is 100%. Popular majors include Liberal Arts and Humanities, Nursing, and Business/ Grayson offers associate degrees in over 25 areas of studies. Tour of Texas is one of many EOSC GEAR UP services provided, which allows students to gain a deeper level of understanding about colleges and universities. The trip also allows students to explore out-of-state campuses, giving students first-hand experience and more options when choosing a college or university upon high school graduation.

The trip was sponsored by EOSC (Eastern Oklahoma State College) GEAR UP. EOSC received a $17 million federal GEAR UP grant in 2017, and will serve more than 3,000 students in 39 area schools for seven years.

Students who attended were from Antlers, Cameron, Canadian, Coalgate, Crowder, Eufaula, Haileyville, Hartshorne, Howe, Indianola, Keota, McAlester, McCurtain, Panama, Porum, Poteau, Quinton, Rattan, Savanna, Spiro, Stringtown, Talihina, Whitesboro, Wilburton and Wister.

More Articles