Texas Border Business
Closing ceremonies held with students and families in school districts across the Valley
MCALLEN, TX (August 1, 2017) – South Texas College, in conjunction with school districts across the Valley, has achieved a record number of students participating in the college’s summer-long Texas Prefreshman Engineering Program dedicated to promoting future careers in STEM among middle and high school students across the region.
TexPREP is an agreement between South Texas College, The University of Texas at San Antonio and participating school districts which offers an academically intense, mathematics-based summer program stressing the development of abstract reasoning and problem solving skills.
The purpose of the program is to identify high achieving students with an interest in science, technology, engineering and other mathematics-related areas and to increase their potential for careers in these fields.
More than 313 students from various school districts including Roma, PSJA, Hidalgo and Weslaco ISD participated in the summer program which was held at STC’s Mid Valley, Pecan and Starr County Campuses.
STC hosted the seven week program in June and July. Closing Ceremonies were held on the last day, July 27, 2017 at each of the participating sites.
“This summer marks our ninth year of the TexPREP Program,” said Dr. Rebecca De Leon, Director of Academies and High School Projects at STC. “Each year we recruit rising seventh grade students from partnering school districts who commit four summers to participate in our program. For each summer successfully completed, students receive a high school elective credit. The STEM-based program provides students with the opportunity to increase their knowledge through hands-on projects and weekly career awareness speakers.”
Dr. De Leon celebrated the first of four closing ceremonies with students from Hidalgo ISD on July 27, which had more than 100 students complete the Texas Prefreshmen Engineering Program.
“Everything is a partnership,” said Hidalgo Superintendent of Schools Xavier Salinas. “As stakeholders in the education of all our kids, it’s important that the teachers working with the professors make sure we produce productive community members in the future. That’s our role.
“We are college ready, and we want the kids to be engaged and achieve whatever dreams they set out to do in the future,” Salinas said.
STC’s High School Programs Department started the TexPREP Program during Summer 2009. The mathematics-based program, approximately seven weeks in length, is presented over the course of four summers to students in the seventh through the tenth grades.
The STEM Program is held each summer, and enables students to become exposed to hands-on projects and field trips across the Rio Grande Valley.
“This whole TexPREP experience has been really beneficial for me,” said Linda Perez, a Hidalgo ISD high school sophomore who plans to pursue a career as a pediatrician. “Early on, I struggled a lot in math but TexPREP really gave me that push to advance, and I definitely wouldn’t be where I am in all of my classes without them. I’m really thankful for that.”
