Pahrump Valley High junior Cailyn Marsh selected for statewide GEAR UP honor

Pahrump Valley High School junior Cailyn Marsh was selected as one of only five Nevada students for GEAR UP’s 2026 Destination DC Experience, a one-week trip to Washington, D.C., that includes the Youth Leadership Summit with NCCEP, campus visits and career exploration.

The selection puts Marsh in a very small statewide cohort for a program built to push students toward college access and postsecondary success. Nevada State GEAR UP is a federally funded grant program aimed at increasing the number of low-income students prepared to enter and succeed in college, and it says schools are chosen when their federally free- or reduced-lunch rate is 50% or higher. Students are generally identified in 7th grade and supported through high school and their first year of college at a Nevada System of Higher Education institution.

That support is meant to do more than cover a trip. In a rural community like Pahrump, opportunities that put students on East Coast campuses and into national leadership settings can be out of reach for families whose only exposure to higher education comes through local schools and nearby colleges. Nevada State GEAR UP’s current model includes partnerships with five middle schools, three high schools, Dean’s Future Scholars at the University of Nevada, Reno, and ASPIRE at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, giving the program a statewide footprint that reaches well beyond Nye County.

The Destination DC Experience is scheduled around the NCCEP Youth Leadership Summit, which will run July 19-22, 2026, in Washington, D.C., during the NCCEP/GEAR UP Annual Conference. NCCEP describes the summit as a national interactive training experience focused on life and leadership skills, paired with the kind of campus exposure that can shape a student’s plans before senior year.

Pahrump Valley High School has already been building toward that pipeline locally. The school hosted a Nevada GEAR UP College & Career Fair on March 11 and held a GEAR UP dual enrollment parent night at Great Basin College on April 29, giving students and families a closer look at college credit, enrollment steps and what comes after graduation. Marsh’s selection now extends that work from the Pahrump campus to Washington, D.C., where the next round of college and career conversations will unfold on a national stage.