Star Summit
The first Star Summit was held successfully yesterday (5/14/2008) in the garden room of UHCL. Star (Success Through Academic Recognition) is the brainchild of Ms. Krishani Abeysekera, lecturer and systems administration in our CS/CIS programs:
We have partnered with colleagues in the San Jacinto Community College in the STAR program. Their professors nominated students with high potential to be successful in computing areas so they can apply to become a STAR scholar. Scholars enjoy many benefits, such as award and recognition, scholarship, dedicated faculty adviseing, industrial mentoring, peer mentoring, etc.
The Star Summit was the first one for the gatherings of future Star scholars for awards and introduction to the UHCL programs and environment. 14 future scholars and their families attended the ceremony and seminar.
Several professors from San Jacinto Community College have nominated Star scholars. Professors Pamela Betts and Robert Tehnoryk of San Jacinto South attended the summit.
Krishani started the summit by congratulating and welcoming the scholars.
I followed with an introduction to the Star program.
This was followed by Dr. Sadegh Davari, the interim dean of the school. He talked about the benefits of studying in our school. Dr. Anthony Jenkins, the dean of students, then detailed the rich student services provided by UHCL to enhance student success.
Dr. Billy Satterfield, the assistant director of financial aid, discussed various financial options at UHCL.
Dr. Sharon Hall, chair of the Computer Science program, gave an overview of the CS and CIS programs at UHCL.
Ms. Barbara Coleman, our academic adviser, then discussed our curricula and advising.
Afterward, Dr. Davari presented an award and a flash drive to each nominee. The 12 students receiving the award are Rebecca Havard, Bryan Ellis, Ian Fleming, Amelia Hahn, Zhiyi Chen, Hesamttehadieh,Thientam Nguyen, Thomas Boatman, Matt Hall, John-Michael Hawley, Alex Craig and Oscar Pena. They have a chance to becoming inaugurating Star scholars.
Among our faculty, Drs. Hisham Al-Mubaid, Dan Kim and Morris Liaw attended the summit and chatted with the Star scholars. Ms. Kim Edwards, our suite secretary, helped out during the entire summit. She also served as the photographer, taken photos like the one below.
