{"id":110360,"date":"2020-06-18T09:08:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-18T13:08:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=110360"},"modified":"2020-09-30T15:42:11","modified_gmt":"2020-09-30T19:42:11","slug":"knights-on-the-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/knights-on-the-rise\/","title":{"rendered":"Knights on the Rise"},"content":{"rendered":"
Adrian Guerra is cleaning his apartment before heading in for his 3 to 10 p.m. shift as a customer service rep at Publix. During his first two years as an integrated business major<\/a> at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½, Guerra would do his best to squeeze 10 hours of work between classes and studies each week. Since spring break, though, he\u2019s been clocking 30 hours per week. He also started an internship with Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ Athletics, serves as a committee chair for the student ambassador program in the College of Business<\/a>, and is heavily involved in student government.<\/p>\n Enrollment at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ in the offbeat summer of 2020 is up over the routine summer of 2019. There are 6.6 percent more students taking 11.4 percent more credit hours than a year ago.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Oh, and there\u2019s this: \u201cI\u2019m taking more credit hours than usual this summer.\u201d<\/p>\n From her home in Kissimmee, Sabah Qureshi accepts a call on a Tuesday morning. Qureshi, a biomedical sciences major<\/a>, has become remarkably productive from this very spot.<\/p>\n \u201cI just finished a Zoom meeting \u2026 or class,\u201d says the pre-med student. Qureshi\u2019s instructor, after polling students at the beginning of the term, decided to set aside three hours to meet with them virtually six days a week. Qureshi is in as many of those as possible.<\/p>\n Like Guerra, she\u2019s taking a bigger load of summer credit hours \u2014 a total of 12 between Summer A and Summer B terms \u2014 than normal. The Organic Chemistry II<\/em> class from which she\u2019s just logged out? It\u2019s being offered as a summer class for the first time ever.<\/p>\n Qureshi and Guerra are part of a rising trend that\u2019s also raising eyebrows: Enrollment at Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ in the offbeat summer of 2020 is up over the routine summer of 2019. There are 6.6 percent more students taking 11.4 percent more credit hours than a year ago. The increase spawns from a convergence of factors, including, of all things, the campus going quiet for the past three months.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we abruptly had to transition to remote instruction in mid-March, we were heading into uncharted waters. One concern that was top of mind was future enrollment,\u201d says Theodorea Regina Berry, Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½\u2019s vice provost of Student Learning and Academic Success and dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies<\/a>. \u201cWe learned that the Âé¶¹Ó³»´«Ã½ community is resilient. We banded together to create an environment focused on student success. Our approach worked; enrollment for Summer 2020 is up.\u201d<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n