Pharr Mayor Dr. Ambrosio Hernandez is the recent recipient of the Education Champion Award from Teach For America – Rio Grande Valley. Ambrosio was honored for his impact on education at the organization’s annual Honor Roll Gala held on April 8 at Quinta Mazatlan. Hernandez was selected for his response to the pandemic by accelerating the city’s plans to roll out an affordable broadband network throughout the city. The measure…
A walk into Quinta Mazatlan takes patrons into a visual and architectural history of McAllen. It was on this 80-acre site over eight decades ago that adventurer and writer Jason Chilton Matthews built one of the larger adobe homes in Texas. The 10,000-square-foot home stands tall today with a regal dignity overlooking an estate of lush green habitat. Quinta Mazatlan is one part an architectural wonder in how the Spanish…
Ramiro Garza’s calling cards in his successful mayoral run were advocating for a code of ethics and pledging to rid City Hall of conflicts of interest. Once in office in late 2021, Garza faced another challenge as freshly released U.S. Census figures showed Edinburg grew faster than any other city in the Rio Grande Valley. The city’s population in 2020 showed a 39 percent growth over the 2010 count. At…
Md Salman Rahman’s big idea involves artificial intelligence and systems which allow patients to upload their medical reports. Rahman envisions his product, HealthAl, training people how to use algorithms to read the reports in helping to detect diseases. It’s a brilliant concept with soaring ambitions but Rahman, a UTRGV graduate student, lacked the entrepreneurial and business experience to take such a technological-heavy product to the marketplace. Rahman’s product development got…
The Rio-South Texas Education and Community Development Foundation recently announced it will establish a $5-million endowment on behalf of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The endowment will be funded annually over the next five years. UTRGV will match each annual payment to establish a total endowment of $10 million by 2026. Funds from the endowment will enhance UTRGV’s new Graduate Select Scholarships for students in Agriculture, Food, Natural Resources,…
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Department of Intercollegiate Athletics and City of Brownsville will soon be hosting youth clinics and athletic events, all of which are presented by Chick-fil-A Boca Chica. The women’s soccer team will host a free youth clinic on Aug. 13 from 4:30-6:15 p.m. followed by an intrasquad match at 7 p.m. at Brownsville Sports Park. The clinic is open to girls ages 10-18 who are…
Jorge Sanchez thought he had the perfect plan in place after graduating from high school. He earned a scholarship to St. Edward’s University in Austin, where he planned to major in biology with a concentration in biological sciences. But as he calculated the cost for tuition, room and board, and books, Sanchez realized this plan did not make financial sense. “Even though I was given a scholarship to study at…
Sometimes life plunges us into a classic catch-22. That is exactly where Cesar Romero found himself. Working as a nurse technician, Romero was earning $11 an hour. In order to increase his income, he applied to the Bachelor of Science in Nursing program at The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Learning that the program required full-time-student status peppered his joy at being accepted. He could not afford to pay…
Ron Garza built a reputation as an administrator who could foster cooperation among Rio Grande Valley cities when seeking state funding and developing transportation systems. He served for years as the executive director of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. The job allowed him to work on projects with county judges, mayors and city managers across the Valley. Regional agreements are becoming more the norm in a historically divided…
The view from Ford Sasser’s sixth-floor office offers a wide expanse view of the expressway traffic running beneath it. Rio Bank’s new office tower looks out over Expressway 77/83 in McAllen since its opening in October. The city’s hospitals and medical district are just across the way. Sasser, Rio Bank’s president and chief executive officer, is a fixture on local television with a signature and folksy line. “Your kind of…