About Our Community
While AIU Houston certainly prepares its students well in the classroom, because the school is focused on training for success in the real world, it takes advantage of the larger classroom that is the city of Houston. The largest city in Texas and the fourth largest in the U.S., Houston is a leader in business, arts, and technology. In fact, 21 Fortune 500 companies call the city home. Of course many are energy-related, but there’s also Waste Management, Continental Airlines, and Sysco.
Nicknamed “Space City” because NASA’s Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center is located here, Houston is also where the design for the first Compaq computer was sketched on the back of a napkin at House of Pies (a well-known diner in the city’s Upper Kirby district). The city has remained at the forefront of technology.
Houston’s 17-block theater district is ranked second in the country in the number of seats in a concentrated downtown area (12,948 seats for live performances and 1,480 movie seats), and Houston is one of only five U.S. cities with permanent professional resident companies in all of the major performing arts disciplines. AIU Houston Visual Communication students appreciate that the city is also widely recognized as the country’s third most important for contemporary visual arts.* AIU Houston professors are active in the city’s art scene.
Need a break from class and studying? Head for the sunny beaches of the Gulf Coast, a mere hour away, explore one of the city’s ethnic neighborhoods (Houston has two Chinatowns and a large Vietnamese-American population), or catch a ball game. At AIU Houston, the world is your classroom.
* Sources: www.houstontheaterdistrict.org