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.

Higher education had finally arrived in Starr County.

Fast forward nearly 30 years later. There’s an 11-building, 63-acre campus in Rio Grande City on FM 3167, just off the highway heading to Roma, a South Texas College campus for all of Starr County. The technical classes in trades like welding, automotive technology and advanced air conditioning would come first to go with basic academic classes found at community colleges.

The westernmost college campus in the Rio Grande Valley would hardly stand still. Every opportunity to vote on bond issues to expand and improve the Starr County campus was approved by county residents. This is even as Hidalgo County voters turned down similar STC proposals. The increase in funding as approved by Starr voters helped to add allied health programs, featuring nursing. New additions also included advanced manufacturing and industrial programs.

A badly needed library was built as was a student services building. A 300-seat events center joined in and is shared with the communities of Starr County. The campus is a jewel for the county. Area leaders say it has changed the way the communities view themselves and their possibilities. 

“This campus has transformed our county and its communities,” said Rose Benavidez, the chair of the STC Board of Trustees who also serves as president of the Starr County Industrial Foundation. “It has allowed us to have access to higher education. It has been a generational change for this entire region.”

Different Perspectives

Arturo Montiel had spent over a decade with the STC system when he became the campus administrator for the Starr County campus. 

Montiel spent time at both the main McAllen campus and Mid-Valley campus in Weslaco before arriving in Rio Grande City in 2013. What became apparent to him is that Starr County parents are more involved in their grown children’s education. The students themselves also expect and want more personal guidance.

“I tell my colleagues that students in Starr County are different and so are the parents,” Montiel said of STC’s 3,000-student enrollment campus in Rio Grande City. “Cookie cutter ideas are not going to work in Starr County.”

He attributes it to the more rural setting of Starr County along with most families being people of faith and coming from close-knit communities. Montiel sees the familial feel of the Starr County campus as a plus. He accordingly strives to incorporate that element into how staff and faculty connect with students.

The school-student connection was tested in 2020 with the necessity of remote learning. Something good came out it, however, in Montiel’s view with technology sharpening. What wasn’t acceptable before became the norm as Starr students linked up to classes in McAllen. In person is usually preferred, but when that’s not possible or something can be arranged remotely, saving a Starr student an hour-long drive or lengthy bus ride to McAllen is a worthy goal, he said.

“One of the biggest issues is keeping our students here,” Montiel said. “We look for ways to offer things here and that includes being connected with technology so our students and an instructor can see each other and interact.”

Growing Opportunities

The need for such remote linkups is becoming less necessary as STC’s campus continues to improve its offerings.

Allied health programs, especially nursing, will continue to be a focal point. Montiel envisions growth in technical areas like cybersecurity and wind and solar power as fields with a growing demand. Trade programs like diesel mechanics will strengthen. In academic areas, Montiel mentioned social work programs and criminal justice as fields that STC in Starr County will highlight. The college will establish a police academy as jobs with the Border Patrol and other law enforcement agencies continue to grow.

On the economic development side, Benavidez points to the dramatic dip in local unemployment with the building of the STC campus in Starr County. What was an unemployment rate of over 40 percent has shrunk to single digits with a better educated and trained workforce. The approval of the bond votes reinforced the belief that county residents have in higher education, she said.

“People here understand that investing in education was the way to improve things,” said Benavidez, a Starr County native who heads up the STC Board of Trustees. “College is now reachable for anyone growing up in our communities.”