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 diverse audience of teachers and students. It fulfills a longstanding NASA pledge to reach schools and learners of all backgrounds in promoting space, the earth sciences and technology fields.

The Local Start

Garcia got his grounding in the Rio Grande Valley before all of the space talk and instruction across distant lands. He grew up in Mercedes and began his teaching career as a geography teacher in his hometown and in the Pharr-San Juan-Alamo school district. A self-described “basketball nerd,” he also coached boys’ basketball teams before pursuing a master’s degree at then-University of Texas-Pan American.

It was at UTPA where it was recommended he go on to earn a doctoral degree at Texas State University. Garcia would do so and his intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning would take him to NASA and the stars. No matter where has gone, Garcia has always remembered his roots and the teachers back home who inspired him.

“Our teachers really motivated us,” he said growing up in the Valley. “The rigor and care they provided gave me a really good foundation. They were the role models I wanted to mimic.”

Returning To RGV

Garcia has shown that his back-home remembrances aren’t all talk.

He returns to the RGV every summer. With the help of his younger brother, Steven Ray, and an ever-growing list of sponsors, he organizes what he calls an Earth X Space Celebration. The Garcia brothers and the South Texas Astronomical Society put on the third edition of this celebration in early August. Over 500 participants made it to the Mid-Valley and the Mercedes FEMA Dome for the summer event. Attendees learned about science, space and the environment, with interactive activities and presentations geared to local youth.

Samuel Garcia draws upon his deep experiences and knowledge in organizing such an event. He is bringing to his hometown area what he has done across the South and the Caribbean in highlighting the wonders of space and science to kids. In this case, it’s the faces of RGV youth lighting up with the exhibits and interactive sessions featuring the STEM topics of science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

 “Our students in Mercedes and the Valley are just as capable and resourceful as anywhere else in the country,” Garcia said.

‘Primed’ To Grow

His assessment appears to be on the mark. The Earth X Space Celebration has grown over the last three years.

The event’s first year drew about 100 participants as Garcia and his brother rolled out the idea of having the summer event. Year two featured the planetarium at John F. Kenney Elementary School in Mercedes and that event drew over 300 participants. 

“It started out small but I think we’re seeing it can go bigger,” said Steven Ray Garcia, whose Mercedes business printed up the event t-shirts.

Bigger still was the most recent Earth X Space with over 500 participants. The event also drew a wide array of sponsors from the Astronomical Society to Chick-Fil-A to Mayor Adrian Villarreal of Weslaco. 

“The Mid-Valley is primed geographically to do things like this,” said Samuel Garcia.

‘Leverage Background’

Garcia hopes to “leverage my background” and work toward creating a foundation that can make Earth X Space more than a yearly event.

He envisions such a foundation hosting year-round STEM programs in the Valley and working toward granting scholarships to Valley students pursuing studies in those fields. In heading back to NASA and his Florida home, Garcia will be thinking of his hometown region and what more he and his brother can do to reach more Valley students who are interested in earth, science and space.

“Valley youth are living in some exciting times,” he said. “There are some very big opportunities in STEM-related fields. I feel like it’s important for me to come back home, serve my community, and give back.”