sneak peek of UH
by Jesse Sendejas
News Reporter
Lamont McInnis sat in the Athletic/Alumni Facility, surrounded by reminders of University of Houston football greats. He dreams of joining their ranks one day.
McInnis was one of about 200 prospective UH students at Transitions, a four-hour orientation program designed to make college dreams come true.
The orientation, held Saturday, was presented for transfer students and adults contemplating a return to school. The transfer office of Student Outreach Services coordinated the event.
"It's been very helpful," said McInnis, a 6-foot, 235-pound would-be linebacker who hopes to join the Cougars football team once he transfers from Houston Community College this summer. "They have different stations where you can get insight into what's going on in certain fields a person might want to look into."
Fifteen campus organizations lined the halls of the Athletic/Alumni Facility with information booths. The meat of the program, however, was served in two 45-minute sessions, which provided information on the enrollment process, financial aid, career planning and distance education.
"We have really tried to make it easier for people in greater Houston to take advantage of what we have," said Susan Zwieg, director of outreach services. "A program like this is the nicest way to help folks who are valuable citizens and who, academically, are probably more focused than anyone else around here."
Zwieg said Transitions was offered in the Fall 1995 semester and has been presented twice a year since. She said the program is vital since more students in transition from other universities or adulthood arrive at UH per semester than entering first-year freshmen.
Zwieg said the orientation's attendance has steadily increased, and she counted 50 more heads Saturday - many with graying hair, she noted - than she did in the Fall 1996 session.
Beverly Stockton was among the adults attending Transitions who are considering returning to school. She hopes to be admitted for the fall semester to continue work on a business management degree.
By the time Stockton attends her first class in August, her son will have graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio and her daughter will be close to earning a degree from The University of Texas at Austin.
A "career stalemate" is how Stockton described her impetus for returning to school. "You need that degree or it's 'Sorry, you don't have a degree,'" she said. "Plus, coming back to school is fun."
But not all prospective students share that opinion, according to Jack O'Brien, one of three transfer counselors in the UH admissions office.
"Many students are coming from a community college or haven't been to school in a long time and fear such a large campus as UH," he said.
"Another goal of this program is to get those people on campus and try to dissuade any of those fears so they realize it's not scary."
Though much of the Transitions program dealt with life at the UH campus, an entire session was devoted to pursuing education off campus. Melissa Cantrell, a coordinator in UH System's Distance Education Outreach, said distance learning is a growing component of a UH education.
Distance Education offers off-campus credit courses via formats like interactive television, video tapes and on-line services.
"It's an exponentially expanding program," Cantrell said, adding that about 2,000 students enrolled in distance education classes this spring, including one student in Saudi Arabia.
"I imagine (the number) will continue to increase," Cantrell said. "We're becoming a more technologically advanced society, and I think our market demands this type of convenience and availability."
Stockton said her biggest obstacle in returning to college has been finding the time to take the courses.
"Just setting the time aside to do it has been the toughest of all obstacles," she said. "I know before my children were in college, with all the activities they had then, there wasn't time for me to do this the way I can do it now."