South Texas College Associate Vice President of Dual Credit Programs and School District Partnerships Rebecca De Leon is making history as the first from STC to be appointed as president-elect on the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships board of directors. “This was unexpected. I’m still taking it all in, but it is exciting and I’m honored. It could not have come at a better time, as we kickoff 25…
A school district that began in 1964 as a rehabilitation facility and today has career and technical campuses across two counties is celebrating its 60th anniversary. The South Texas Independent School District is based in Mercedes – the city where it got started – and grown far beyond its original mission. In the mid-1980s, the district opened South Texas High School for Health Professions (Med High). It was the first…
When it comes to surmounting barriers to higher education, Alyssa Soto of Pharr could be a first-place hurdler. In her mid-30s, Soto is a single mother of three children, ages 8, 9 and 14. Prior to 2022, she had been a stay-at-home mom for 10 years. When her circumstances changed, Soto realized she needed to pursue a degree; she chose nursing and gained acceptance to South Texas College in the…
The students sat around a large table in the science lab at Lamar Academy in McAllen. Their exuberance felt palpable, smiling as their teammates spoke. The Lamar Academy International Baccalaureate Science Olympiad Team discussed how they got to this point. In January, the 20-member team will travel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. to compete against 65 other teams in a national tournament. The Lamar Academy Team…
Susan Valverde’s background was in business and going to trade shows to attract jobs to McAllen. Working in business development, Valverde was on the staff of the McAllen Economic Development Corporation. It was a six-year stint that ran from 1997 to 2002. She began to understand that bringing in jobs to her community was dependent on having a better trained and educated workforce. That fact became even more apparent in…
The UTRGV School of Medicine has opened of its new, state-of-the-art Center for Human Genetics, headquartered on the Brownsville Campus. The new facility is dedicated to cutting-edge research that addresses major public health concerns in the Rio Grande Valley, including diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular disease, liver cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and depression. The 17,246-square-foot facility, funded by a Valley Baptist Legacy Foundation grant and support from the UT System Permanent University Fund, will…
While in the Vocational Nursing Program at Texas State Technical College in Harlingen, Yvette Garcia attended an informational session conducted by the Valley Initiative for Development and Advancement. Little did she know that day how much this session would impact her life. Founded nearly 30 years ago through a collaboration between Valley Interfaith and business leaders from across the Rio Grande Valley, VIDA has remained true to its original mission.…
Carlos Reyes opens an empty electrical box in one of the labs of the mechatronics technology program at Texas State Technical College. The box represents something of a starting point for students in the program. As the program progresses, students will be tasked with filling those empty boxes with the circuits, sensors and other components to make it a fully functional electrical unit. “We build them up from scratch,” said…
UTRGV is one of the best places to work in higher education, according to the prestigious Great Colleges to Work For program. The results are based on a survey of 216 colleges and universities. Only 75 institutions achieved “Great College to Work For” recognition for specific best practices and policies, placing UTRGV among a select group of top-performing schools in the country. UTRGV competes in the large university (more than…
Thanks to a new partnership, high school students from South Texas Independent School District’s Science Academy in Mercedes can now participate in a dual credit program in Welding Technology with Texas State Technical College. “The dual credit program pairs well with our hands-on approach to the engineering program of study,” said Vanessa Rivera, the school district’s career and technical education director. “We encourage our students to learn and earn stackable credentials…