Summer sessions 2014 illuminates with customized, educational experiences
Virginia Tech Summer Sessions 2014 debuts this week with more than 8,800 students enrolled in more than 760 course offerings during one or both of the six-week semesters.
The last day to add a course for Summer I is tomorrow, May 29. The session runs through July 3. Students can still register through July 10 for the Summer II session which begins July 8 and runs through August 16.
Students can take advantage of the customized educational offerings summer features including face-to-face on-campus classes, online courses, hybrid courses (partially online with a face-to-face component on campus), study abroad experiences, undergraduate research experiences, and internships.
Now in its third year, Virginia Tech Summer Academy– a program for first-year and transfer students to help transition more seamlessly into the college experience – stands at an enrollment of 350 students, a 47 percent increase from last year. The academy overlays with the Summer II semester, offering 18 tracks with three dedicated to transfer students.
“We go where you go—whether online or in a face-to-face setting. Virginia Tech Summer Sessions is there for you,” shared Michael Herndon, director of summer and winter sessions, in a recent “In the Loop: Summer Sessions" podcast tailored to Virginia Tech’s parent community.
Herndon noted that students enroll in summer courses to boost their grade point average as well as catch-up or get ahead on course work, especially for students who are double or triple majoring.
“One of the things that students find most appealing about summer courses is the ability to have that dedicated focus on the subject matter. Students can earn up to 18 credits over the course of both summer sessions,” Herndon said.
Summer sessions is also a point of entry for faculty members to introduce a new course or transfer an existing face-to-face course to an online offering.
Derley Aguilar, instructor in the Department of Communication, discussed how she brought the idea forward to teach Video Production Studio for the first time during the 2014 summer sessions, including the benefits of learning in a focused timeframe and taking advantage of the state-of-the-art facilities at the Moss Arts Center.
This video production course will be offered for the first time this Summer.
Students also find summer to be the optimum time to work closely with faculty in a research setting. During the 2014 summer sessions, close to 200 students are taking part in paid research experiences through programs and institutes, including:
- REU in Cognitive Communications,
- Space@VT,
- REU in Biomechanics,
- Transportation Undergraduate Research Fellowship (TURF),
- REU in Bioprocess Engineering for Sustainability,
- Hands-On Minds-On REU,
- Center for Tire Research REU,
- StREAM Lab REU,
- Microbiology in Post Genome Era REU,
- Interdisciplinary Water Science and Engineering REU,
- Fralin's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF),
- Scieneering,
- Multicultural Academic Opportunities Program (MAOP),
- Virginia Bioinformatics Institute Undergraduate Scholars Program, and
- Translational Obesity Undergraduate Research Scholars (TOUR).
The Office of Undergraduate Research is coordinating workshops and activities for the programs’ participants through the summer. Students will present their work at the Virginia Tech Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium on July 31,2014 at the Graduate Life Center at Donaldson Brown.
Hokies will be making their mark globally this summer with 460 students enrolled in education abroad opportunities in more than 30 countries, with Germany, Spain, and United Kingdom topping the list. This represents more than a third of the total number of students engaged in study abroad experiences annually through Virginia Tech Education Abroad.
Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.
