Category Archives: Community

Partnership Bridges Technology Gap

Education Featured News Technology Comments
Three students present their concept for a mobile app that would scan the contents of an individual’s refrigerator and pantry and find recipes to use those ingredients.

Code/Interactive and Mission EDC join forces with school district Students at Mission Consolidated Independent School District’s Rafael Cantu Junior High School displayed computer coding skills Friday that they are learning as part of a program to better prepare young people to succeed in the high-tech job market. The Mission school district has launched the program in partnership with the Mission Economic Development Corporation and Code/Interactive of New York which brings…

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‘Fab Lab’ Plants Seeds of Creativity

Education Featured News Comments
UTRGV students Vilma Flores and Alissa Flores with Dr. Emmett Tomai, UTRGV Computer Science Associate Professor, on Monday, July 17, 2017 at the UTRGV Fabrication Lab in the Visual Arts Building in Edinburg, Texas. (Photo by Paul Chouy, UTRGV)

Lab serves underprivileged areas Technology, science and art will come together in a learning laboratory setting to design new products. Two faculty members at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley are teaming up to create what will be known as a fabrication laboratory, or “fab lab.” Donna Sweigart, associate professor of art, and Dr. Emmett Tomai, associate professor of computer science, received an Internal Seed Research Program grant from…

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Dancing as Fast as She Can 

Arts Comments

In 1995, during her senior year at Lamar University, Lori Rodgers often traveled between Beaumont and Harlingen as she prepared to open her business. The dance major, with advice from her father Rick Mathes, had found a home for Rio Grande Valley Arts Studio in Harlingen and was having the building renovated. She convinced him that she did not need a teaching degree as a backup.“Dance is what I know…

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Skilled jobs have another path   

Education Featured Healthcare News Comments

Vocational schools Lead to career paths Individuals who want skilled jobs and technical training without taking the academic courses required by South Texas College, Texas State Technical College and Southmost College can enroll at Rio Grande Valley’s privately owned vocational schools.  Providing no nonsense, adult-focused education, the proprietary school courses that focus on healthcare jobs prepare students for careers in vocational nursing, massage therapy, dental assisting and medical office skills.…

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Casa Los Ebanos hosts weddings 

Community News Comments

“This is the perfect place for custom weddings,” agreed Taylor and Martha Blanton of Casa Los Ebanos, a grand, 82-acre estate located just outside San Benito. The property has served as the site for hundreds of such events, as well as other gatherings, over the past 15 years. “Here we let you pick your own caterer, band, everything, and fit it to your budget,” said Taylor. Developing a cost-friendly yet…

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Talent Development = More Business

Arts News Comments

Jonathan Hess and Sindy Buezo-Hess intend to make their Hess Modeling Agency at the Studio on Broadway the go-to casting agency for deep south Texas.  After three years in business, they are supplying models and actors for regional commercials, promotional events and photo shoots in the Valley, San Antonio and beyond. To develop the talent pool, the couple established the Studio on Broadway with artistic and performing arts instruction in…

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For The Love of Salsa Dancing

Arts News Comments

Salsa music entered the mainstream in the late 1980s and by the 1990s, thousands of fans outside of Latin communities caused a salsa explosion throughout the United States. Salsa dance fever ensnared  Israel and Rosie Coronado, the owners of Sabor Vallero Latin Dance Company, who recently celebrated the tenth anniversary of teaching and promoting salsa throughout the Rio Grande Valley. “Salsa can really get in your blood,” said Israel Coronado,…

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The Creative Class – making art for a living

Arts Featured News Comments

Creativity is intelligence having fun, according to Albert Einstein. But can you run a business based on creativity, which is traditionally the realm of artists, musicians, and writers? The stereotype has them setting their own hours, wearing nontraditional attire, acting independently and not earning much. In “The Rise of the Creative Class,” author Richard Florida gave an entirely new definition to the term creative class, which he describes as the…

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Ready or Not, Storm Season is Here

Community Featured Comments

Hurricane season has begun and the time to be prepared is before a storm forms in the Gulf of Mexico. Everyone who lived in the Valley in 1967 remembers Hurricane Beulah, the widespread flooding and the 100 mph gusts felt even in Hidalgo County. Category II Hurricane Dolly in 2008 battered and flooded Harlingen and parts of Cameron County. And 2010 was a disruptive hurricane season for Rio…