Past Projects

Harris County Sheriff's Office Re-Entry Project

Senior seminar students in our Criminal Justice program work with representatives from the Harris County Sheriff's Office in a re-entry project designed to prepare incarcerated individuals for a successful return to the community and reduce recidivism. Students in the program learn to provide face-to-face support of inmates, publish a guide book of resources in the community, examine the research on re-entry and recidivism, and prepare a documentary film about the project.

House of Tiny Treasures Mosaic Project

During a study of victimology, Criminal Justice students and faculty worked with the young students at the House of Tiny Treasures school for homeless children. The project included visiting the Orange Show Exhibit and working with local artists to create mosaics form a collage of found objects. Following a study of the growth in skill and creativity exhibited through the preliminary drawings and mosaics, there are plans to display the mosaics at the House of Tiny Treasures and in the College of Public Service. 

African-American Library at the Gregory School Oral History Transcription Project

In the first of what we hope will be a collaboration involving multiple layered projects, students in Urban Education are currently working with the oral history librarian at the African-American Library at the Gregory School in the historic Fourth Ward of Houston. The UHD students are learning to use transcription software and abbreviated note-taking to transcribe video-taped interviews of Fourth Ward residents and graduates of the Gregory School. There are plans to expand the project to include middle and high school students participating in the Fifth Ward Enrichment Program in interviewing the residents of the Fifth Ward. 

Citizenship Month Literacy Project with Harmony Public Schools and select HISD Sites

Middle and high school teachers from Harmony Public Schools and teachers from select sites serving immigrant and refugee populations in HISD are working with UHD's Leigh Van Horn. The teachers collaborate with Van Horn in the design of curriculum that will engage students in thinking about citizenry and in writing poetry that reflects their experience and thinking on the topic. Select authors have the opportunity to share their poems during the opening celebration of Citizenship Month in Houston.