As we mentioned a few weeks back, National GEAR UP Week is coming soon! The goal, as you know, is to put forth an extra-intensive, totally-immersive effort towards getting GEAR UP students excited about pursuing their college and career dreams. It’s basically a time to celebrate the future—and start making real goals towards an amazing one.

In Connecticut, they’re doing something similar called “College Summit.” It’s a workshop program out of Yale, and it’s a city-wide, district-wide, community effort to help give students a head start on making college plans. The best part? They’re seeing that since the program began in 2010, graduation and college-enrollment rates are increasing. (Hooray!)

Another cool little piece of their effort: Students that participate come back to their campuses as “ambassadors” and help lead initiatives to inspire their peers to pursue postsecondary education, as well. Pretty fabulous idea, in our humble opinion.