{"id":7019,"date":"2012-05-10T08:42:06","date_gmt":"2012-05-10T14:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=7019"},"modified":"2012-05-10T08:46:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-10T14:46:00","slug":"new-website-helps-students-access-10-southern-colorado-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communique.uccs.edu\/?p=7019","title":{"rendered":"New website helps students access 10 southern Colorado colleges"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0A new website will allow southern Colorado students to learn about programs at 10 two and four-year colleges in one easy step.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The site, www.socolo-edu.org<\/a>, is intended to show low- and moderate-income students that they can be the first in their families to pursue education after high school. The site was produced by the Southern Colorado Higher Education Consortium a collaboration of all ten public colleges and universities in southern Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a>UCCS Chancellor Pam Shockley-Zalabak leads the project and continues to seek ways to provide families in southern Colorado opportunities to attend college.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that attending college can seem like an impossible dream,” Shockley-Zalabak said. “This website aims to take the mystery out of applying for college, is clear about the costs of attendance and the help that can be provided as well as the multitude of interesting, high-demand fields of study that students can select while staying close to home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fueled by a $750,000 Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the SCHEC is working cooperatively to increase the number of southern Colorado residents who attend college. The website will help families in southern Colorado connect with local colleges and understand requirements to enroll in post-secondary education. Unemployment rates are generally lower for people with education after high school and the Bureau of Labor predicts increased demand for employees with higher levels of education.<\/p>\n

\u00a0By fall, the group hopes to offer ten new college-level courses to students who are enrolled in high school, a feature rare in rural districts that dominate southern Colorado. The challenge of the consortium is to offer courses that are accessible, interesting, and engaging for students who have done well in high school but might not be at the top of the class. The goal of offering the new courses to high school students is to show them that they can succeed at the next level. Along with the new course offerings, each campus will offer a summer campus-based program that aims to introduce students to college expectations, campus life, and academic preparation techniques.<\/p>\n

The graphic identity for the project, S\u00f3Colo Reach, uses the Spanish concept of the Z\u00f3calo, or city plaza, combined with the southern Colorado outreach effort. The colleges represented in the S\u00f3Colo Reach project include Adams State University, Colorado State University-Pueblo, Fort Lewis College, Lamar Community College, Otero Junior College, Pikes Peak Community College, Pueblo Community College, Trinidad State Junior College, University of Colorado Colorado Springs, and Western State Colorado University.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For more information about S\u00f3Colo Reach, contact Phillip Morris, project coordinator, 255-3300 or pmorris@uccs.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n