UHV partners with Harmony Public Schools
University of Houston-Victoria administrators are officially encouraging students at Harmony Public Schools to attend UHV and complete their degrees after leaders from the two institutions signed a partnership agreement on Tuesday.
The signing event took place in Houston. UHV now will offer expedited admission to students who graduate from the Harmony district and meet certain criteria, including being in the top 50 percent of their class and having at least a 2.5 GPA. The agreement sets a goal of 15 Harmony students attending UHV annually and will start this fall.
“UHV is proud to partner with Harmony Public Schools to offer students a path toward higher education,” UHV President Bob Glenn said. “Harmony Public Schools has a legacy of excellence, and UHV is excited to continue that commitment by offering resources to encourage students to equip themselves for the future and pursue their educational and career goals.”
Harmony Public Schools is a Texas-born, Texas-wide public charter school system with campuses serving pre-k through 12th-grade students in 23 cities across the state, including Greater Houston, Dallas-Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, Waco, Lubbock, Odessa, Bryan, Beaumont and the Rio Grande Valley. Harmony’s curriculum places a heavy focus on STEM skills, character education, project-based learning and college readiness.
“At Harmony Public Schools, our primary mission is to help our students develop both the academic knowledge and life skills they will need to be successful in college and far beyond,” said Fatih Ay, CEO of Harmony Public Schools. “We are extraordinarily proud to partner with the University of Houston-Victoria who shares those values and can offer our graduates the kind of affordable, high-quality education that will connect them to the careers and futures for which they work so hard.”
In addition to streamlining admission to UHV, the university also will be offering resources to help students succeed, including mentorship programs and tutoring. The program is intended to not only help Harmony students get into college, but also support them and encourage them to finish their degrees. UHV also will offer two possible scholarships to Harmony students for their freshman year for $3,000 or $1,200, depending on eligibility.
“What makes the UHV and HPS partnership uniquely valuable to students is that Harmony students will feel right at home when they come to UHV,” Glenn said during the ceremony. “Students will never sit in a 300-student classroom. They will be in small classrooms and they will get to know their professors.”
The agreement also will allow UHV to visit the district’s campuses to meet with Harmony students and their parents to talk about the importance of attending college and the programs and resources available at the university. In addition, the university plans to expand the program in the future to offer opportunities for Harmony faculty and staff to attend UHV to earn graduate degrees and certifications.
The University of Houston-Victoria, located in the heart of the Coastal Bend region since 1973 in Victoria, Texas, offers courses leading to more than 80 academic programs in the schools of Arts & Sciences; Business Administration; and Education, Health Professions & Human Development. UHV provides face-to-face classes at its Victoria campus, as well as an instructional site in Katy, Texas, and online classes that students can take from anywhere. UHV supports the American Association of State Colleges and Universities Opportunities for All initiative to increase awareness about state colleges and universities and the important role they have in providing a high-quality and accessible education to an increasingly diverse student population, as well as contributing to regional and state economic development.
