The headlines and buzz in recent years when it comes to higher education has been focused on the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and South Texas College. In Brownsville, the oldest college in the Valley has been quietly and steadily building momentum of its own. Texas Southmost College was established in 1926. Some of its programs and offices are based out of historic Fort Brown buildings that date back…
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley will develop a McAllen Academic Medical Campus and its first piece is a major one. The university is planning an Oct. 14 groundbreaking, commemorating the start of construction for a $145.7 million UT Health RGV Cancer and Surgery Center in McAllen. It is being described as the single largest project in UTRGV’s history. The campus and its signature building will sit on Pecan…
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley has agreed to boost its dual credit offerings with an area school district that has campuses throughout the region. The South Texas Independent School District and UTRGV announced this week an expansion of an existing dual credit program. Beginning in 2023, STISD students will be able to take college courses through UTRGV if they plan to attend the Valley’s university. The two educational…
A World Boxing Council-affiliated event is coming to Harlingen in early October, expected to attract 400 amateur boxers and 4,000 fans to the city’s convention center. Atlanta-based Sugar Bert Boxing Promotions is bringing its Green Belt Tournament Series to Harlingen. It will likewise be the first time Sugar Bert will hold one of its tournaments in Texas. There will be four rings in the convention center, each hosting 50 bouts.…
Cindy Avalos got through a challenging 2020 that as a restaurant manager meant overseeing thin staff doing the work of many as her industry struggled to survive with pick up and delivery orders. For Avalos, it was a continuation of a career working in restaurants that started in her childhood in Harlingen, helping her parents with a Mexican food restaurant. “I have it in my bones,” she said of working…
Esperanza Homes from its base in upper Hidalgo County moved into the Brownsville market in recent years. It skipped over the Mid-Valley but it was a short-lived omission. Esperanza, a division of Rhodes Enterprises, had designs on the Mid-Valley all along. It established on paper a Mid-Valley division in 2020, which in Esperanza’s case, runs from San Juan to Weslaco. The company moved this year to break ground on Texas…
JoAnn Evans wrapped up a teaching and education administration career 20 years ago and retired to South Padre Island. In retirement, Evans and her husband enjoyed the beauty and calm of Island life, including the fishing. It was a leisure activity her husband actively enjoyed. There was one big thing missing, however, and it harkened back to Evans’ background of teaching speech and theater. “I was missing the performing arts,”…
The Casa de Nylon-turned-entrepreneurial resource center is nearing completion in downtown Brownsville. The 36,000-square-foot, two-story facility on east Adams Street should be open for business – and innovation – by the end of this month. It will be the largest facility of its kind south of San Antonio. The eBridge Center for Business & Commercialization is located just a few blocks from the Gateway International Bridge. The Brownsville Community Improvement…
Its start was a modest one with a few classes in historic buildings where Fort Ringgold once stood in Rio Grande City. It was the 1994-95 school year and the beginnings of the South Texas College in Starr County. The school went by South Texas Community College in those early years. No matter how humble the origins, it would prove to be transformational for Rio Grande City and area communities.…
Blake Henry’s career has taken him around the country as a hospitality industry veteran who has now located to South Padre Island. Henry is the new director of the South Padre Island Convention & Visitors Bureau who is looking forward to the planned renovation of the CVB’s main venue. It is a key piece of his plans to raise national awareness of SPI. The Island’s brand is strong instate as…