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 traveling to Europe as part of an MEDC delegation. In Germany and Ireland, Valverde saw how the private sector partnered with educational systems to develop students who were prepared to work in industry and across many economic sectors. 

“After that, I got more excited about education,” she said. 

Building Brand

The budding interest in education led to Valverde opening the first Sylvan Learning center in the Rio Grande Valley in 2002. Sylvan is a private sector company with over four decades of experience in offering personalized tutoring for students in grades K-12 and has facilities in the United States and Canada. 

“I was moving into a new career where I didn’t have a background,” Valverde said of opening a Sylvan Center on Dove Avenue in McAllen. 

She did have the experience of being a student who struggled in school as an immigrant child who moved to the United States knowing no English.

“Maybe that’s what drew me to education,” Valverde said. “I know what it’s like to be that child who needs to catch up in the classroom.”

Valverde would open her second RGV center in Brownsville and then a third in Harlingen. She actively worked with area school districts in seeking to be a partner in helping to solve problems and not be seen as just another vendor. Valverde set an early goal to make the Sylvan Learning centers accessible to area schools and not only for families who have the financial means to pay for personalized tutoring. 

She applied for and successfully received state grants which allowed her Sylvan centers to partner with local school districts for after-school tutoring. Often utilizing retired teachers who are state certified, area districts began to see Sylvan as an ally and not a competitor with the establishment of the after-school programs on their campuses.

“We built up goodwill,” Valverde said. “The districts saw it as a partnership and we were able to expand our customer base and replicate our system in more communities.” 

Corporate World

The RGV initiatives involving partnerships with school districts and having Sylvan information made available in Spanish became model programs other Sylvan centers implemented in the United States.

In 2016, with her three centers firmly established in the Valley and the company’s programs now mainstays in area school districts, Valverde sold her business and moved on to a corporate position with Sylvan. She is today Sylvan’s brand president and often travels to the Dallas corporate office as well as across the country in advising Sylvan Learning centers.

Valverde is based in McAllen, where she has lived in the Valley since moving to the region in the early 1990s. The Monterrey native who is the daughter of a truck driver/diesel mechanic is proud of being part of efforts and programs that show what a positive learning environment can do for students.

“I’ve been there with language issues,” she said of her immigrant background. “You meet children where they are and take our instruction to them in helping them reach their goals.”