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UH FRESHMAN WINS SWACURH FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE AWARD
 Bryan Haver,
a freshman living in Cougar Village,
won the First Year Experience Award
at SWACURH (the Southwest Affiliate
of the National Association of
College and University Residence
Halls, Inc. [NACURH]). This award is
one of the premiere student
leadership awards in the nation and
is highly competitive. The SWACURH
region encompasses Texas, Arkansas,
Louisiana, Oklahoma and New Mexico. Haver won over eight other
candidates from such schools as
University of Texas, Texas State
University, Southern Methodist
University and Oklahoma State
University. Having won at the
regional level, Haver will now have
the opportunity to compete at the
national level.
The award is given to a
freshman/first year student with no
previous residence hall experience
who has shown involvement in the
institution, involvement with NACURH
or its affiliates, community
involvement and/or won academic
honors. The bid for the award must
include an essay on why the student
should be honored with the First
Year Experience Award, a letter of
good standing from the Dean of
Students or Registrar of the
university, a letter of
recommendation from an advisor or
residence hall staff member and a
list of collegiate accomplishments
and involvement. The decision was
made at the SWACURH Conference in
Denton at the end of February 2011.
Each university with a bid argued
for their candidate in a room with
all of the other universities in
attendance at the conference and
decided on the recipient of the
award. In this case, the process
only took an hour and a half
(instead of the usual three-plus
hours) because of Haver’s
outstanding qualifications.
Residential Life & Housing always
advises residents to get involved
because studies show that the more
involved a student is with campus
life, the more likely the student
will be successful, persistent,
graduate and be satisfied with
his/her college experience. Haver
took this advice to heart and jumped
in with both feet. So far in his
first year of college, he has become
a member of the Honors College and
pre-pharmacy association, the
National Communications Coordinator
for RHA, RHA representative for the
Food Services Advisory Committee and
student representative on the
Residential Life and Housing
Executive Director Search Committee.
He has also received an Academic
Excellence Scholarship, volunteered
for Cougar Preview and works as copy
editor for The Daily Cougar.
Haver attended SWACURH 2010 serving
on the hosting committee and
affiliated the University of Houston
with NACURH for the first time in 3
years where he became a member of
the NACURH Corporate Structure
Committee.
If that were not enough, Haver
became a Resident Assistant (RA)
this spring, a position not normally
given to a freshman, but, with
Haver’s outstanding commitment to
the residential community during his
first semester, made him a good
choice for RA.
“Receiving this award was an
incredible honor for me and for our
RHA,” Haver said. “I am so thankful
to everyone who helped me do so much
during my freshman year.”
In addition to everything Haver is
doing on campus, he is also
exploring his career goals by
volunteering two nights a week at
Methodist Hospital in order to
observe the nurse’s role in patient
care. Haver pledges to be just as
involved during his sophomore year.
To view Haver’s bid for the award,
visit
http://www.uh.edu/af/UH_FYE.pdf.
For more information about SWACURH,
contact Colleen Schmidt at
Cschmidt4@uh.edu or go to the
SWACURH
website. For more
information about the First Year
Experience Award, go to the
NACURH website.
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