SUMMER 2011: A focus on the Downtown Summer Classes

I bet we can all remember when the summer came to an end and the school year was about to begin. Our teachers would inevitably ask us to write what we did during our summer vacations. Some friends would write about going to Disneyland, or the Grand Canyon, but then there were some who spent time in summer school. Not because they had to make up classes, but because they loved to learn. This issue of the UTSA Downtown Electronic Newsletter focuses on some of the summer pre-college programs offered at the Downtown Campus.

When asked what they did during their summer vacation, the elementary, middle and high school students who attended the UTSA Downtown Campus summer programs, will write about researching the effects of technology on reading comprehension, and learning about our Downtown Campus through scavenger hunts. The elementary school students learned about slime and polymers, the Bernoulli Principle and more. The high school students heard admissions presentations to learn how they could be admitted to UTSA.

The Office of P-20 Initiatives hosted its 8th annual Destination Discovery Summer Science Camp for fourth and fifth graders, while middle school students attended the Explore Stem Camp. First-generation-college bound and underrepresented students were targeted for participation.

While we had pre-college programs in place some UTSA students took courses abroad. For example, the UTSA College of Public Policy students examined the justice system in Spain. The College of Architecture students studied in Paris, Rome, and in Galveston, Texas.

Although we tend to concentrate on teaching students, we didn’t forget about the teachers. The Academy for Teacher Excellence (ATE) provided bilingual, math, science and special education teachers with a weeklong professional series.

During the summer, we had some major changes in one of our colleges. Dr. Rogelio Saenz began his role as the dean of the UTSA College of Public Policy, and the Department of Demography and Organizational Studies is now officially called the Department of Demography under the College of Public Policy. Our external environment also had a major change. The addresses of the UTSA Downtown Campus and the Institute of Texan Cultures changed with the renaming of Durango Boulevard to César E. Chávez Boulevard.

AND HOW ABOUT OUR ROADRUNNERS? More on that to follow...

Welcome back, and I hope each and every one of you has an enjoyable fall semester.

Jesse T. Zapata, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for the UTSA Downtown Campus