#CommCares: How you can help students in Houston through an emergency scholarship fund

Temple Northup

By Temple Northup, director of the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston

As you know, this has been an incredibly challenging time for the entire city and region. I am reaching out to communication programs and professionals around the country with information about how you can make a direct impact in the lives of communication students here at UH. If you could please share this with colleagues in your area, I would greatly appreciate it.

I have created an emergency scholarship fund for our students. We have about 2,000 majors in the school, and almost all of them work at least part time to support their education. Under normal circumstances, paying tuition and other associated costs can be hard. For some, Harvey has made it that much harder. By supporting this fund, I hope that we can reduce the need to choose between continuing college and acquiring basic necessities. 100 percent of your donations will be used for students in need. And let me be honest, it is really needed. I have already gotten emails from students who have lost their homes, their cars and their possessions. 

If you can spread the word to others in the communication field, that would be great. I am hoping to show our students that not just Houston and the school care for them, but that the communication field more broadly. Anything can help. Simply choose the "Valenti Scholarship Fund" on this page:

https://giving.uh.edu/communication/

Thank you so much. With every donation we receive, we will tweet out to show everyone that #CommCares.

Let me know if you have any other questions, and I appreciate your support.

Temple Northup, Ph.D., is director and associate professor, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication at the University of Houston. He can be reached at temple@uh.edu or (713) 743-1697.