By Emmanuella Aina
Facilities is known for carrying out the maintenance, planning and construction on the University of Houston campus. However, there are a few staff members who carry their passion for their work into the classroom to impart experiential knowledge to students.
Rick Beltran, an analyst with Facilities Management who began his teaching career at UH in 2011, will continue this semester heading the Information and Communication Technology class at the Jack J. Valenti School of Communication.
The class will focus on the merging of radio, newspaper and television with the web. His objective is to enable students to build their own career portfolio website by the end of the semester. This will equip broadcast students to report, video, edit their report videos themselves and transfer it to a server that will broadcast it to their audience. His goal is to make students understand technology and how to use it in their careers.
Beltran is invested in the UH education system as he has also taught at the UH-Sugar Land and Tomball campuses.
“I will keep teaching until I retire,” he said.
He is able to teach and work for Facilities due to the hybrid nature of the class, which gives him ample time for both.
Eva Lyon, a project manager for Facilities Planning and Construction, also is no stranger to the education scene. Her teaching experience transcends 20 years, including the past nine years teaching on the weekends at UH.
She currently teaches graphics at the College of Technology as part of the Construction Management program. She wants her students to gain knowledge on how to read blueprints and images, which she said is similar to knowing another language like sign language.
She particularly enjoys teaching this topic in construction management because it is closely related to her job description in her position in the Facilities/Construction Management office. She enjoys being able to teach and also embark on projects at UH simultaneously.
“I want to be more than a professor to students, I want them to see me as a mentor because I will help them hone their skills and push them to follow their dreams and goals," Lyon said.