Recruiting the Underserved To College
Five big buses are currently cruising Texas high schools, shopping malls and low-income neighborhoods with one primary goal — to recruit underserved students to college.
They are called “Mobile Go Centers,” and they are wired with 10 laptop computers, satellite connections to the Internet and informational materials on “how to prepare for, apply to, pay for and succeed in college.” Most importantly, the staff has a message that many minority students don’t hear enough: College is possible.
Run by the University of Texas at San Antonio and Houston Community College, the centers are funded by a variety of grants. The goal is to recruit an additional 630,000 students to Texas colleges and universities, which higher ed officials say is necessar y for the state to keep pace economically with the rest of the nation and the world.
“The object is to draw potential college students in to learn more, be they young or old,” says Chris Smith, spokesman for the Mobile Go Centers.
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