University of St. Thomas opens micro-campus in Conroe

The University of St. Thomas Houston held a ribbon cutting to officially open a micro-campus, the UST MAX Center, in downtown Conroe. The ribbon-cutting was held for the new micro-campus, located at 336 North Main Street, the morning of October 20.

“University of St. Thomas is proud to be Montgomery County’s only private, four-year university,” UST President Dr. Richard Ludwick said.

Ludwick talked about bringing a campus to Conroe.

“It started in the spring of 2018, when Conroe City Councilman Jody Czajkoski called me, and said that we think the community would benefit from having a Christian University in the area, would you come up and take a look at Conroe? So, we did that; we did our due diligence and all the stars aligned,” said Ludwick. “It’s an incredible place; Montgomery County continues to grow and it’s a vibrant community. People in Conroe have been so welcoming to us. After we did our due diligence, we said yes, this makes sense, but how are we going to do this, how are we going to get the money for this investment. That’s where Vince D’Amico comes in; an alumnus of ours. He had some land up here in Montgomery County, and he said I want to give that to you, not necessarily as the site of a campus, but just as a resource so that you’ll have the money with its sale to start the UST MAX Center, to start the nursing program site up here.”

Ludwick said the nursing program they offer in Conroe was the initial step forward.

“That was the biggest need, and you can see from our sold-out enrollments, that that data proved to be accurate,” said Ludwick. “That’s our goal, is meeting the needs of our community, and to be guided by the relationship, rather than just another, say “vendor” of higher education.  We don’t want to be a vendor; we want to have a relationship with this community and with its people.”

Ludwick said there are now two University of St. Thomas locations in Montgomery County.

“We have the UST MAX Center here in the heart of Conroe, and very nearby, over by the hospital, we have the Carol and Odis Peavey School of Nursing, what we’re calling the northern nursing site,” said Ludwick. “It is a completely state-of-the-art facility that is up and running, with students who started in August. It’s got some of the highest, best clinical state-of-the-art attributes. It’s over by the hospital, so their clinicals are very nearby. The first semester was this semester, and the enrollments hit our capacity. It’s already at capacity for the Spring, and the summer is at capacity with a wait list.”

Ludwick said the other program involves an associate’s degree.

“If someone begins the associate program in the Spring, then we’ll give them free tuition for that semester. We’re doing that because we want them to know that we’re committed to this community,” said Ludwick. “It’s a really great deal because what comes after that; the tuition costs are very, very competitive with anyone in the market right now. They get a chance to have state-of-the-art preparations for their skills and their new careers, and they get to do that from the Christian perspective of higher education. We think that’s a really good recipe for meeting the needs of this community.”

Here are more pictures from the ribbon cutting: