Texas Border Business
MCALLEN, TX (October 3, 2016) – South Texas College will launch its next cohort for its RGV STEM Faculty Institute on October 6. Working under the auspices of the Texas Regional STEM Degree Accelerator (TRSDA), STC will be hosting faculty from across the Valley who will immerse themselves in intensive training with the intent to enrich students’ learning experience in STEM-related fields.
Trainings will take place over the course of seven days throughout the school year. The sessions will start Oct. 6-7 in the fall, and March 2- 3 and April 6-7 in the spring. Graduation day is June 9.
The program will begin on Thursday Oct. 6 at the McAllen Convention Center and will include comments from Sergio Castro, Director of the Regional 911 Call Center speaking on Information Technology at 10 a.m.; and Dr. Armour Forse, Chief Academic Officer at Doctors Hospital at Renaissance speaking about healthcare at 11 a.m. John Melville of Collaborative Economics will be moderating the panels.
The Institute will continue on Friday Oct. 7, and will take place at Valley Nature Center in Weslaco.
The trainings seek to introduce new concepts in STEM through highly specialized training being provided by staff at STC.
“As Cohort II of the Texas Regional STEM Degree Accelerator starts off, we are very pleased that twelve regional academic institutions, from universities, to colleges, to Independent School Districts, are sending over seventy faculty to participate in this endeavor,” said Rachael Brown, STEM Accelerator Grant Coach and Associate Professor at South Texas College.
“Over the next year, these faculty will be working in teams together to explore some of the opportunities and challenges in the changing world of education,” Brown said. “We’ll be taking a close look at our leadership in the classroom and with our fellow faculty; our use of active learning strategies in the classroom, and also learning from and partnering with local industry, as well as each other, to better inform our students as to how their classroom success is part of the educational pathway to a promising and successful career.”
Educate Texas awarded STC an $800,000 grant to help support the training of approximately 200 (67 per year) K-12 faculty over the next three years. The goal of the initiative is to align curriculum between K-12 and higher education institutions in an effort to increase interest in STEM, and help students successfully complete a STEM-focused program of study, specifically in either healthcare or computer information.
Through the program, the mission will be to provide training, as well as community and industry collaboration to benefit more than 200 RGV-area faculty and more than 40,000 STEM students across the Rio Grande Valley. STC will serve as the catalyst, urging students to move forward with their completion of certificates, associates and bachelor’s degrees over the term of the TRSDA and beyond.
“Over the next couple of years, we are looking to impact 40,000 students by helping to promote three main areas with faculty,” Brown said. “What we are focusing on at the STEM faculty institute involves creating a pathway for those who are teaching in the dual enrollment areas, and faculty teaching at two and four years colleges. We are giving them an opportunity to work together because they all have strengths.
“The faculty in the high schools really have the strength of knowing about active learning and knowing how to impact the classroom,” Brown said. “The faculty at the two and four year level often have a fair amount of experience in the real world scenarios.”
