Women’s Center offers aid to both genders
When you walk through the doors of the Women’s Center for Lifelong Learning, you may be referred to Carlos Henriquez, a peer facilitator for the Student Reentry Center.
Henriquez is the recipient of a scholarship from the reentry program administered by the Women’s Center. During the second year of a scholarship, award recipients are required to do peer counseling for an hour a week.
That’s right – the Women’s Center helps men as well as women.
“I would not have been able to reach my education goals without the help of the financial aid provided by these scholarships, ” Henriquez says.
The 32-year-old junior majoring in accounting lives in Logan and is the father of two: a girl, 7, and a boy, 3.
“I’ve been able to work fewer hours and concentrate more on school,” he said. He sad he is employed full time at ICON Health and Fitness and has been able to cut his hours to part time.
One of the programs offered by the Women’s Center is student reentry. According to its Web site, it started in 1974 with the goal of helping women who have had a gap in their education get back in school.
As the Vietnam veterans came back from war and companies began to close and downsize, it was realized that many men needed a helping hand to continue their education and gain new job skills. In 1988, the Student Reentry Center was established by the Women’s Center to help both men and women, according to the Women Center’s Web site.
The center provides referrals, counseling and helps generate sources of financial aid for male and female reentry students.
There are presently 47 endowments to provide financial aid to reentry students. Several of them can be packaged to provide from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars, depending on the resources available and the needs of the student. Applications for these scholarships are available in March.
Pinnacle, a national non-traditional student honor society, was established at USU in 1990. It recognizes reentry students for leadership, scholarship and service. According to the Web site, Pinnacle membership requires a GPA of 3.0. Pinnacle applications can be obtained by calling the Women’s Center.
In October of 2004, the Women’s Center for Lifelong Learning threw a birthday party in the Taggart Student Center to celebrate 30 years of service to the University and the community. According to the Center’s Web site, Betty Ford, then wife of Vice President Ford, dedicated the Center on June 8, 1974.
Janet Osborne, the director of the center since 1979, said received her doctorate of education at USU and received her bachelor’s degree and master’s from Arizona State University. Her goals have been to enrich the lives of the students the center serves and help them attain their goals, she said.
Osborne said that one of the most rewarding parts of her job is seeing the students who come through the center gain confidence and professionalism through their education and experience at the university. She said the center helps “validate their goals.”
The center has served the university and the community with many different types of programs.
“A lot of the programs we do aren’t forever,”Osborne said. “We find issues that are current and try to do the right thing at the right time.”
She said the programs are diverse and collaborative and the student body and community set the agenda.
-jvoda@cc.usu.edu