ISO-NE introduces power sector career opportunities to local high school students in GEAR UP program

On Tuesday, April 16, ISO New England hosted three students from our local Holyoke High School’s GEAR UP program. The goal of the GEAR UP visit was to expose students to different career opportunities in the power industry and discuss related academic areas of study. During the visit, the students learned a little bit about how electricity is generated and travels to their house. They also watched a brief video about the 2003 Northeast Blackout and saw the ISO control room. Six different staffers spent time with the students explaining what they do at the ISO and a little bit about their journey here.

Fabio Dallorto, an associate engineer at ISO New England, speaks with students from the Holyoke High School GEAR UP program.

About GEAR UP, from the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education:

GEAR UP stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs. It is a national initiative to encourage more young people to have high expectations, stay in school, study hard and take the right courses to go to college.

GEAR UP Massachusetts serves low-income priority students in five cohorts across seven of the Commonwealth’s most impoverished areas: Boston, Holyoke, Lawrence, Lowell, New Bedford, Springfield, and Worcester. Target middle and high schools have poverty rates as high as 93%, and most of the largest are categorized as persistently lowest achieving State Improvement Grant (SIG) schools.

Over the past 12 years, GEAR UP Massachusetts has helped more than 10,000 students chart a path toward high school graduation and college success. In the 2005-’11 grant, students achieved gains in standardized test scores, while comparisons with non-GEAR UP students showed that participants were much more likely to take the SAT, complete financial aid forms, and enroll in college.

(For more information, visit this website.)