An information session is set for 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. today in the Library Events Room N-420, to kick off the countdown to UHD's Fall Open House: Destination Downtown on Oct. 23.

Come be part of the fun, get involved as a volunteer to make a difference. UHD's open house is the university's biggest campus visitation program. Past events have attracted up to 1,200 prospective students and their families. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. Please RSVP if you will be attending the information session by emailing Lucia Cantu at CantuL@uhd.edu to ensure enough snacks.

The First Generation Student Steering Committee is hosting a First Generation Student Welcome from noon to 2 p.m. today in the Special Events Center, third floor, Academic Building.

The Welcome event will include food, UHD memorabilia, a raffle, and information that will be valuable to all students.  Please stop by if you can.    See the attached flyer.

Career Services will hold its fall 2010 Career Expo from 1 to 4 p m. Sept. 29 in the Special Events Room, A-300, third floor, Academic Building, where more than 60 employers will have information booths to recruit current students, upcoming graduates, and alumni for employment and internship positions. 

All majors are welcome.  Students are encouraged to dress professionally (dark suit preferred) and to bring plenty of resumes.  Workshops are being held at Career Services for resume preparation, interview skills and "How to Work a Career Fair" so that students can get the most out of the event.  Faculty members are invited to visit with the employers - make connections for your classes. 

A list of employers attending and the majors they are recruiting forcan be found on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/uhdcareerservices.

Or by logging into the Resource Library on jobs4gators, www.uhd.edu/jobs4gators.

For information or to volunteer to help, please contact Career Services at 713-221-8980, or visit room N-340.

The Criminal Justice Speaker Series will feature Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia who will provide an Overview of Harris County and Crime from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 13, in Room C-100, first floor, in the Commerce Street Building.

The free event is open to UHD faculty, staff and students. The doors open at 5:30 p.m. for seating. A coffee reception will follow the presentation. Books will be available for purchase, $22 cash only.

The Speaker Series is sponsored by the Department of Criminal Justice in the College of Public Service.

(Note date change: A session was previously scheduled from Oct. 7 and it has been changed to Oct. 5.)

Information sessions for been set for Sept. 27, Oct. 5 and Oct. 9 on the College of Humanities and Social Sciences Study Abroad Program to London and Dublin this spring.

The Study Abroad Program includes seven nights in London and four nights in Dublin. The information sessions are 2:30 p.m. Monday, Sept. 27; 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 5, and 10 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 9. All sessions will be in Room N-420, the Library Special Event Room.

The courses are:

►DRA 4390 Royalty, Rogues and Rebels: English and Irish Theatre in Performance

5:30-6:45 pm, Thursday, Dr. Kate Roark,roarkk@uhd.edu

►ENG 3309 Creative Writing and the Delight of Travel

5:30-6:45 pm, Monday, Dr. Robin Davidson, DavidsonR@uhd.edu

►ENG 3340/HUM 3310 Cultural Criticism: Modernism, the Metropolis and Manifestos

5:30-6:45 pm, Tuesday, Dr. Nicole LaRose,LaRoseN@uhd.edu

►POLS 3303 Urban Politics: Cultures of Space, Sport and Media

5:30-6:45 pm, Wednesday, Dr. Anita Chadha,ChadhaA@uhd.edu

Scholarships are available. The requirements are successful completion of 30 semester credit hours including 12 completed at UHD, a 2.5 grade point average and satisfactory completion of the course prerequisites.

For information contact Sandra Dahlberg, professor of Englishh and program coordinator, at dahlbergs@uhd.edu or phone 713-221-8949. Information is also avail at the website, http://www.uhd.edu/academic/colleges/humanities/chsssummerabroad/index.htm

Career Services has information about several job and internship possibilities as well as special recruitment events on campus.

In addition to the Career Expo Sept. 29, other activities include:

·  HACU will be hosting an Information Session on Internships, Scholarships and Student Conference on Sept. 30, Room 622-N.  This is open to all students and all majors. (Job #1805)

·  AXA Advisors  is accepting resumes for an Invitation Only Seminar from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. Sept. 29. Various Majors accepted.  (Alumni welcome to apply).Apply now on jobs4gators, job #1828

·Reynolds & Reynolds will be holding an Informational Seminar on Oct. 12 - this is open to all majors. See job#1825 for details and to RSVP.

Remember - this is just a partial list of openings.  To see all active job listings, or to apply, please visit www.uhd.edu/jobs4gators. Over 180 jobs/internships  are listed.

* Employers will be attending Career Expo. A complete list will be on jobs4gators.

UHD Police Lt. Fred Varela is planning to step off the roof of the Intercontinental Hotel-Galleria in October, and he'd appreciate your support.

Varela will rappel down the hotel's 23 floors Oct. 30 to raise funds for Special Olympics. The rappelling event is open to anyone willing to commit to raising $1,000, but a special contingent of Houston area law enforcement officers, including Varela, has agreed to participate.  "Go Over the Edge" is one of several Special Olympics fund-raising events the policing community participates in throughout the year, Varela said.

Varela has a goal of raising $2,000, but "I have a ways to go in raising funds," he said. The effort has special meaning for Varela.

"I've been blessed with a 12-year-old son who is autistic. He is high functioning and interacts with regular kids. I see kids not as fortunate and it is heartbreaking," Varela said. "Special Olympics gives everybody a chance. Everybody can participate and everybody gets something at the end of the day."

Varela said, "Something exciting like this with an adrenaline rush is right up my alley. I haven't done any rappelling since I got out of the military (U.S.Coast Guard) where we rappelled from a helicopter onto the deck of a ship."

He encourages people to support the effort and to come out and watch the event. "We have to learn to help one another. If you lend a hand to help people, somewhere down the line, somebody will help you," Varela said. "I have a lot of faith. You have to in this kind of job (law enforcement)."

To support Varela's effort, visit the website, http://www.firstgiving.com/frederickvarela.

The Institute of Business, Ethics and Public Issues in UHD's College of Business will host Gordon Massie, former head of AIG's Leveraged Finance Group  at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 28, in room A-405 in the Academic Building. He will discuss AIG's acquisition of American General Corporation om 2001.

Massie will detail AIG's accounting practices for its high-yield bonds, the discovery of accounting fraud, and how accounting fraud was confronted.

Massie has been a regular speaker at high-yield bond and investment management conferences in the United States and Europe. He has worked in the financial/investment business for 30 years with companies including Texas Commerce Bancshares, Prudential Insurance Company, American General Corporation, and American International Group (AIG). At American General, he was responsible for the management of American General's $3 billion high-yield bond portfolio for 16 years.

Massie earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics and a Master's in Business Administration from the University of California at Berkeley. He is in the process of publishing his first book titled, "The Whistleblower's Dilemma.Confronting Fraud at AIG".

For information or to RSVP, contact Carolyn Ashe, professor Management, Marketing and Business, at 713-221-8051 or email ibepi@uhd.edu. A flyer is available here.

Freshman Convocation Essary Contest Winners

Winners announced, receive awards in Freshman Convocation Essay Contest

UHD honored 17 students yesterday for writing top essays related to Malcolm Gladwell's book, Outliers, that provided a common reading experience for the University's first Freshman Convocation this fall.

More than 600 students and 60 faculty members read the book and took part in discussion session during the convocation. Gladwell's book examines what factors lead individuals to extraordinary accomplishments and success.

UHD President Bill Flores and Freshman Convocation Coordinator Tammis Thomas  congratulated the students and their families at the event. UHD plans to make Freshman Convocation an annual fall tradition.

Winners are:

John Waller, first place, $500 cash award; Elena K. Walker, second place, $250 book voucher; Sierra Farrell, third prize, $100 book voucher; Luis Navarro and Isaac Valdez, sharing fourth place, $75 book vouchers.

Awards of Excellence, $50 book vouchers, went to Samantha Arredondo, Gerardo Briano, Angelina Cloud-Equam, Saundrya Dwivedi, Dora Frausto, Ryan Gracey, Mozerratt Garza, Teofi Gomez, Allison Laurenzana, Yuri Nasciemento, Jaime Ramos, Givone Roquemore, Diana Saavedra, Ivette Saucedo, Mayra Solarozano, Brianna Smith and Pamela Stewart.

Back to Top                       

UHD's nationally recognized Scholars Academy has won a five-year, $450,000 federal grant designed to increase underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics who enter programs in the nuclear science arena.

Principal investigator Mary Jo Parker, director of UHD's Scholars Academy, was notified yesterday, Sept. 21, that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission had funded UHD's proposal. "The grant will let us create pipelines from UHD to Texas A & M University, the University of Texas Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences in Houston and other schools with graduate programs in nuclear sciences, nuclear engineering and nuclear medicine," she said.

UHD will receive $90,000 a year for five years. Parker said the money will pay for scholarships, research stipends, conference-related expenses and other costs associated with mentoring eight students each year. "We want to increase the number of underrepresented professionals in the nuclear industry, and this grant will provide support for students who are interested in a number of different career paths."

At the end of the five years, Parker hopes to have a firmly established pathway from UHD to nuclear science graduate degree programs in Texas for underrepresented populations. 

UHD assistant professors Janusz Grebowicz and Maria Benavides in the Natural Sciences Department serve as co-principal investigators on the project and Rene Garcia, Scholar' Academy program manager, will help manage the grant. 

Other collaborators include the state's two nuclear power sites, the South Texas Project and its Nuclear Operating Company, located 90 miles southwest of Houston near Bay City, and the Comanche Creek Nuclear Power Plant, located about 40 miles southwest of Fort Worth.

Jennifer Abrams found her life's work would center on scientific research thanks to opportunities provided by the Scholars Academy and faculty mentors in the Department of Natural Sciences at UHD.

Abrams graduated from UHD in 2007 and moved directly into a microbiology doctoral program at the UT Health Science Center in Houston. This week she won a three-year $33,000 fellowship from the American Society for Microbiology to support cutting-edge research into the molecular causes of diseases such as Alzheimer's, Lou Gehrig's and Parkinson's. She was one of seven students to win the national award.

Abrams said she found out about the award while at home one night reading email. "I was very surprised," she said. "Honorable mentions had already received their letters, so I wasn't expecting the ASM's Award letter."

Abrams said her success started at UHD. To read more....

The Office of Students Activities and Events is seeking donated cakes for its Cake Walk during the annual Fall Family Festival which be from noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23.

The festival will include a kids costume parade, raffles, hot dog eating contest, arts and crafts show, Houston Rockets inflatables, games, music and more. A flyer is available here.

To contribute a baked good, please email Liza Alonzo at AlonzoL@uhd.edu

For people who would like to donate a cade, but who cannot attend the festival, SAE will collect the cakes on Friday, Oct. 22.

For more information, contact the Office of Student Activities at 713-221-8573 or visit www.uhd.edu/sae/fall_family_festival/.

The UHD Staff Council meetings  are open to all staff members and the fall meetings will be at 2 p.m. in room N-1099 on Oct. 20, Nov. 17 and Dec. 15.

Applications are now being accepted for the Edge Award. Apply for the Edge Award today at www.uhd.edu/about/hr/forms/theedge.pdf.

The EDGE is a grant award available to UHD full-time staff members interested in attending seminars, workshops, training sessions, continuing education courses, etc. that are related to their jobs. One award will be presented each month by random draw from applicants. The maximum award per workshop/seminar is limited to $200. A flyer is available here.

The Center for Public Deliberation is sponsoring a the public discussion, "Religion and the Public Sphere," from, 8 to 9:45 a.m. Oct. 12 in room N-420, the Library Special Events Room, One Main Building.

The discussion will focus on religion and the First Amendement of the U.S. Constitution.

Students will address a set of questions about how religion fits and does not fit in public spaces like universities, government, courts, and the media. The discussion will focus on the document, "God and the Commons," produced by the Kettering Foundation. Snacks and beverages will be provided for participants. A flyer is available here.

The College of Public Service will host an Information Session from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Thursday, Oc.7, in the Commerce Building, Room C100, for UHD students interested in pursuing degrees in education or criminal justice.

The event will provide information on declaring a major, THEA and TExES exams, internships, and scholarships.  CPS advisors and faculty will be available to answer questions and meet informally with students.

An additional information session will be at 4:30 p.m. for Urban Education candidates on Oct. 7 in Room C100.

Refreshments will be served. For more information, please contact the CPS Advising Office at 713-221-8906.

Individuals who take the training for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) use are more likely to use the training on someone they know versus a complete stranger. Take advantage of this opportunity to learn what to do in case of an emergency situation.

CPR/AED Certification        

Oct. 14-15, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

Nov. 11-12, 2 p.m. - 4 p.m.

First Aid Certification

Oct. 29, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Dec. 3, 9 a.m. - 1 p.m.                                           

The class fee is $5 for UHD students, faculty and staff members and $10 for others. The sessions are limited to the first 15 people who prepay for the class. The certification is valid for one year.

To reserve a spot for this training, stop by the Student Life Center. For more information call 713-221-8225. A flyer is available here.

IT Training for Faculty/Staff/Alumni

Register for IT training opportunities at the links below.  To schedule a one-on-one appointment or other assistance, please call 713-221-8200. 

Blackboard Vista

Today
1-2 p.m. - Blackboard: Communication Tools

Wednesday, Sept. 29
               10-11:30 a.m. - Respondus: StudyMate

Thursday, Sept. 30
               1:30 - 2:30 p.m. - Respondus: Lockdown Browser

e-Portfolio

Tuesday, Sept. 28 
1:30 - 3 p.m. - TaskStream e-Portfolio

See all current IT training available