Carolyn DePew
STAFF WRITER
The University of Houston Scholar's Community, a four-year-old organization that assists commuting students by providing them with an on-campus academic and social community, held its first ever celebration luncheon honoring graduates of the program on May 1.
Scholar's Community Program Coordinator Tina Blakes said, "This group of students who are graduating today have been with this program since its inception."
The Scholar's Community is an organization that supports more than 1,800 UH student commuters with services ranging from academic advising to providing lockers in which students can stow their books.
Executive Director Joseph Pratt said, "We have a saying in Scholar's Community: Students come first."
The luncheon included testimonials from several of the graduating Scholar's Community seniors. They all shared the great impact that belonging to the Scholar's Community had on their academic success.
Senior finance major Antonio Ponce de Leon praised the program for the sense of community it provides.
"When I came here in 1994 and joined the Scholar's Community, I immediately knew the people in half of my classes," he said.
The Scholar's Community provides early registration and enrolls its entering freshmen in the same sections of some of their beginning core courses.
Next year's entering freshmen in the Scholar's Community will take their English, American history and political science core courses in linked pathway classes with available regular discussion groups and tutoring.
Ponce de Leon also endorsed the Scholar's Community's peer advisor program.
"(The Scholar's Community) offered us an opportunity to speak to upperclassmen who had advice and were there for us," he said.
Senior journalism and RTV double major Martha Rocha talked about the personal support she received from the Scholar's Community personnel.
She said at one point she did not know if she would be able to make it through college due to financial and family problems, but because of the support she received from those involved in the Scholar's Community, she is graduating May 15.
"That is one thing I learned from the Scholar's Community - to never give up no matter how rough things are," she said.
Senior psychology major Theresa Wagner said that what she liked most about the Scholar's Community is "what you can't see on paper."
"I originally joined because they let me register early, I have to be honest," she said, "but now because of the Scholar's Community I have a group of friends that I've been through classes with and know I can count on."
Wagner was initially concerned about attending the large and impersonal UH. She said, "I was afraid I wouldn't get the 'college' experience in a commuter school."
With the Scholar's Community, though, she found a place where "even as a commuter, you really feel like you belong."
Belonging to the Scholar's Community gave her the best of both worlds.
"Through the Scholar's Community, you get the diversity of thinking of a large school, but also the feel of a small school."