Last spring, the Weber State University Venture Program unveiled its latest graduated class. These students are local community members, many coming from low-income and diverse backgrounds. As a result of the program, they now have 10 credit hours completed at WSU — for free.

The Venture Program is just one of the numerous programs WSU offers to students in need of financial assistance. The program has gone on for three years and runs through fall and spring semesters. Venture helps students attain 10 free credit hours in humanities courses.

Venture and other programs like it are part of WSU’s ongoing efforts to reach out to local citizens as part of its community college mission. Ruth Stubbs, director of Education and Outreach at WSU, oversees many programs like Venture that work to encourage local community members to attend college. Much of the work she does focuses on local school districts, and, according to Stubbs, they’ve been seeing much positive feedback.

“They really value these services,” she said. “We’ve had many students who’ve said they wouldn’t have gone if it wasn’t for our programs. They wouldn’t have thought about college if it wasn’t for our programs. They wouldn’t have enrolled if it wasn’t for our programs.”

Stubbs also talked about the major obstacles when entering a university that many students faced. She highlighted the most prominent — lack of finances — but also pointed out something else.

“Just simply the belief that they can go,” Stubbs said. “And believeing that ‘I can go to college,’ and having that belief and that perception.”

Jan Winniford, vice president for Student Affairs at WSU, said that WSU provides a venue for raising the educational attainment of people in the local community. She also spoke about how the open-enrollment policy at WSU and the focus on helping undergraduate students attain degrees is part of WSU’s identity.

“That community college mission is really central to who we are,” she said.

Winniford pointed out that WSU also provides for graduate students and students who are working toward graduate programs. This is part of WSU’s dual mission, and many students working toward graduate schools attest to this.

“Those students that come back often talk about the fact that they are every bit as prepared, if not more so, than some of the people that went to these prestigious, selection-based institutions,” she said.

According to Winniford, 65 percent of students attending WSU come from Weber and Davis counties. When these students graduate, many of them stay in the community and contribute to the economic base of the local region. She said another way that WSU benefits the community can be seen in the high number of nontraditional students who attend the institution.

“I think we benefit the community in numerous ways in addition to the Venture Program,” she said, “and trying to reach out to adults who may want to come back.”

Lisa Taylor decided she couldn’t go to college right after high school due to lack of money. As time passed, she married and had children. Now she’s decided to enter into secondary education.

“I’ve been wanting to go back to school for a long time,” she said, “and haven’t gone to any college yet.”

Taylor entered the Venture Program in order to get started in college, and the fact that it was free was a major benefit to her. She will be starting the Venture Program in fall, and is leaning toward continuing on at WSU after the program is finished.

“It’s closer to where I live and it works for what I’m doing with the rest of my life,” she said.

 

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Magy Ceja, who graduated from the Venture Course in the Humanities in Ogden this spring, was recently awarded a scholarship to attend Weber State University this fall.  UHC's Venture Courses are accepting applications, now.   If you or someone you know would like to study the humanities with college faculty in Ogden, Salt Lake City, or Cedar City, call 801.359.9670 for more information.

OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University has received a $4,000 grant from the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation to support the Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities offered through the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities.

Each year, the Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities provides adults facing economic barriers with a chance to start college. The program is a yearlong, introductory humanities course taught by university faculty and is modeled after the Clemente Course in the Humanities, which was created by educator and journalist Earl Shorris in 1995.

The course’s curriculum includes sections on literature, American history, art history, philosophy and writing/critical thinking. The program’s students attend class two evenings each week during fall and spring semesters, and upon completion receive 10 credits from WSU. It is free to admitted students and includes child care, bus service, books and supplies, as well as all other services provided to WSU students.

“The 14 students who graduated from this past year’s Ogden Venture Course are from families below the poverty line, families for whom college would have seemed a decidedly unlikely possibility,” said Madonne Miner, dean of the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities. “But these 14 successfully participated in two semesters of college-level course work, connecting with each other, their five Weber State faculty members and some of Western culture’s greatest minds.”

One of the program’s past students writes, “The Venture Course in Humanities that I have participated in … has been a most enlightening, rich experience for me. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity extended to me in these sections, which were all taught by the best teachers Weber State has to offer.”

The Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities receives funding support from the Alternative Visions Fund of the Chicago Community Trust, Utah Humanities Council, O.C. Tanner, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, Alan E. & Jeanne H. Hall Endowment for Community Outreach, and Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities.

The Rocky Mountain Power Foundation is part of the PacifiCorp Foundation, one of the largest utility-endowed foundations in the United States. The foundation was created in 1988 by PacifiCorp, an electric utility serving 1.7 million customers in six Western states as Rocky Mountain Power (Utah, Wyoming and Idaho) and Pacific Power (Oregon, Washington and California). The foundation’s mission, through charitable investments, is to support the growth and vitality of the communities served by Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power.

Visit www.rockymountainpower.net/about/itc/foundation.html for more information.

Visit weber.edu/wsutoday for more news about Weber State University.

Contact:

Madonne Miner, dean of the Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities
801-626-6424, madonneminer@weber.edu

Author:

John Kowalewski, director of Media Relations
801-626-7212 • jkowalewski@weber.edu

 

Program benefits many generations
By Allison Barlow Hess (Top of Utah Voices)
Last Edit: Apr 30 2010 - 2:02pm

When Pissamai Sae Tang starts talking about the education she received in the Venture program at Weber State University, she can't stop crying; she is so appreciative.

After a life of deprivation and desperation, she snapped up an opportunity to get some university education, which was made possible through the generosity of donors and the vision of educators.

She is one of 19 recent graduates of Venture -- a program that proves a hand up for one individual can lift entire families and communities for many generations. Even though budgets are tight, helping individuals is still the right thing to do.