A&M Central Texas holds Warrior Preview Day
By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press
Texas A&M University Central Texas held its Warrior Preview Day Saturday, offering an opportunity for incoming students and potential students and their family members to tour the campus and its facilities, visit with faculty and learn about the university admission requirements, plus learn about degree requirements, scholarships, financial aid and more.
TAMUCT holds Warrior Preview Day twice a year, according to Gregory Bourgeois, Assistant Director of Recruitment and Admissions.
“It's to help prospective students see what we have to offer them,” he said.
The different services offered on Warrior Preview Day, such as financial aid help and FAFSA assistance and more, are offered every other day, he added, “but this is a day that is specifically dedicated for our students, because we know that they're working or they have other life requirements, and it may not be convenient for them to come out, we try and host it twice a year so they can come and see what we have.”
Approximately 250 people had pre-registered for Saturday’s Warrior Preview Day.
Over in Warrior Hall, prospective and incoming students of the College of Education and Human Development gathered to meet with the faculty and staff and learn more about their college and degrees.
Jeff Kirk, dean for the College of Education and Human Development, said that he felt it was an amazing opportunity to meet with potential students and tell them what the college is all about.
“It's very exciting for me, because I think we, as the College of Education and Human Development, we kind of prepare humans to work with humans,” Kirk said. “All of our courses are related to education or counseling, psychology or school psychology, exercise, physiology, and so forth, so it's an important day.”
In Founders’ Hall, Dr. Marita Esposito, the Assistant Dean for the College of Business Administration, shared information with prospective students and their families about what their college had to offer.
“It’s exciting, and it shows the importance of higher education, and so I am happy to see that there are students interested in moving forward in terms of either getting their bachelor's, their graduate degree, a certification or a micro credential,” Esposito said. “Now, of course, we hope that they come to the Business school, but we have other programs here at TAMUCT that are excellent and can offer opportunities for students in terms of pursuing their educational and career goals. Here in the business school, we're looking to build a foundation for students in our various academic programs, and we want to make sure that they are prepared to move forward to employment and to furthering their careers, so today gives an opportunity to do outreach.”
In Heritage Hall, faculty and staff from the College of Arts and Sciences were on hand to answer questions from prospective students.
Tajeana Brown, 25, attended the Warrior Preview Day with her parents. Brown is transferring to the university in January to pursue her bachelor’s degree in Social Work. Brown obtained her associates degree in Psychology from Hillsborough Community College in Florida.
Brown said that when she decided to go for her bachelor’s degree, she looked for the best schools for her future career field. TAMUCT in Killeen was listed as one of the top five schools for social work, she said.
“I really enjoyed it,” Brown said about the Warrior Preview Day. “I got so much information, just from standing at the table and talking to everybody. I got a look into what it's going to actually be like when I do my program.”
The College of Arts and Sciences also includes the university’s Department of Nursing. Dr. Amy Mersiovsky, Director and Chair of the Department of Nursing, called Texas A&M University-Central Texas the “best kept secret in Central Texas.”
“So many people don't know that we're here, number one, and number two, about the great degree programs that we offer,” Mersiovsky said. “In addition, our affordability puts us in a class of our own.”
For the Department of Nursing, Mersiovsky said that faculty and staff had seen several students who are still in high school but also others looking to start their post-secondary educational journey and even nurses looking to obtain their bachelor’s degree after years of working at the bedside.
“There's so many different pathways into nursing, and we want to get everyone up to the bachelor’s degree status,” Mersiovsky said. “The Institute of Medicine has recommended that all nurses practicing at the bedside have at least a bachelor's degree, and we work really hard to make that attainable for nurses who are working at the bedside. We all know right now, we need a lot of nurses, and we can't take them away from the bedside to be in school, so we’ve worked really hard to make a rigorous but flexible degree program to keep our nurses at the bedside but also continuing their knowledge base.”
On the second and third floors of Heritage Hall, prospective students could also speak with the Veterans Services, Business Office, Financial Aid and even sponsors from Temple College and Central Texas College for those students who may need to complete a prerequisite course in order to take a course at TAMCUT. Those students could work on dual-enrollment, if they have the necessary number of credit hours.
For more information on what Texas A&M University- Central Texas has to offer, people can visit https://www.tamuct.edu/ and click on the Let’s Chat button to have a live chat with the university’s admission advisors.