Youthful Weslaco entrepreneur Juan San Miguel knew it would take a fierce determination when seeking to start his own business. “I had to do my best to make it impossible to say no,” he said, recalling the days of needing startup capital. San Miguel’s ambition was to own and run his own gym. Sitting behind his desk, he smiles and recounts how he went from the framework of an idea…
Dr. Roberto Alejandro Cruz moved to the Rio Grande Valley in the summer of 2020 and a few months later developed a vision for a comprehensive multiple sclerosis center at DHR Health. Five years later, the DHR Health Neuroscience Institute in McAllen received an official designation that makes it the only center of its kind south of San Antonio. Cruz is the center director of a medical facility that earned…
Samuel Garcia’s career as an educator has taken him across the American South and Caribbean Islands in connecting students and teachers to the wonders of space and science. Garcia works from his home base at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. He is an education outreach specialist representing NASA. Garcia has travelled throughout Florida, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands in conducting seminars, workshops and interactive sessions to a…
Kylie Sikes was making her way to the Rio Grande Valley and travelling down U.S. Highway 77 through King Ranch country. “You go through so many miles of open country and then all of a sudden you see this big mix of cities in the Valley,” she said. Sikes is the director of youth programs for the Junior Beefmaster Breeders Breeders Association. The destination in mid-July was the Rio Grande…
McAllen ISD is now offering the Step-up Program, a free diploma completion program for adults ages 18 to 26 who left school before graduating. The program accommodates flexible scheduling, allowing students to attend in the morning or afternoon, Monday through Friday, to match their personal commitments and to proceed at their own pace. The program is planning to launch with approximately 50 students early this fall at McAllen ISD’s Lamar…
The clock was ticking down over the summer to an Aug. 30 kickoff on the sports websites of the nascent UTRGV Vaqueros football program. A “T-minus” ticker was going until a Saturday evening kickoff under the summer lights of a converted soccer stadium in Edinburg. It was the UTRGV Vaqueros versus the Sul Ross State Lobos in the first ever college football game in Rio Grande Valley history. It was…
The 2025 edition of H-E-B’s Quest for Texas Best competition is down to 10 finalists and one of them is based in McAllen. Sully Villareal’s Deli Spice Cooking Spices has made the cut among more than 370 products up for H-E-B’s review. An H-E-B press release states about Deli Spice, “Every blend is tested by families and perfected by a Mexican mom in Texas to help people cook authentic birria…
Isidro Lerma, a theatre arts teacher from McAllen ISD’s James “Nikki” Rowe High School, has earned Regional Secondary Teacher of the Year honors by the Region One Education Service Center. In the past 35 years, McAllen ISD teachers have earned 23 Regional or State Teacher of the Year titles – the most in the South Texas Region. This year, the Region One Education Service Center celebrated 51 district teachers of…
The U.S. Small Business Administration has opened nominations for the 2026 National Small Business Week Awards. National Small Business Week, which recognizes the contributions of America’s 36 million small businesses, which make up 99 percent of all businesses in America, creates two out of every three new jobs, and employs about half of America’s workforce. Next year, National Small Business Week will take place May 3–9. “During National Small Business Week,…
Gina Cano-Monreal, Ph.D., is the new provost of Texas State Technical College’s Harlingen campus, effective July 29. Cano-Monreal previously served as the college’s associate vice chancellor for instructional shared services, supporting TSTC’s 12 campuses across the state. In that role, the Harlingen native oversaw curriculum quality and alignment, instructional design and support, and instructional resources and solutions. “TSTC is making significant investments to expand premier technical training in the Rio…