RGV Mentors Partnership Begins
Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Tech Prep has formed a new community partnership that will help more high school students decide on their career pathways. RGV Mentors was recently organized by Harlingen gastroenterologist Dr. Nolan Perez, Gabe Puente, publisher of rgVision magazine, and Esmeralda Lozano, Medical Education Program coordinator for UTHSCSA. RGV Mentors aims to match successful community professionals with aspiring high school students. The goal is to ensure that all students graduate from high school with a college-ready and career-ready mindset.

“You have to expose kids to successful people in a field that interests them. That helps them succeed whatever they choose to do,” Dr. Perez said.

Initially RGV Mentors was going to be a stand-alone entity. “The more we thought about, it made better sense to partner up with Tech Prep instead of working separately. The two missions fit together,” Dr. Perez said when he stated that RGV Mentors will operate as a subcommittee of Tech Prep, with its leader Dr. Perez representing the group on the Tech Prep Executive Board. Dr. Perez, who came from a supportive family with involved parents, recalled the profound experiences he’s had because of his mentors. “It helped me to have someone to lean on and to ask questions and tap into their wide experience. Kids need our help to overcome their challenges and obstacles.”

“Tech Prep is the perfect match for RGV Mentors,” Esme Lozano said. RGV Mentors will build on Tech Prep’s existing programs that include job shadowing, internships and visits to college and universities. Tech Prep’s knowledge of high school to postsecondary education pathways, their connections to schools and career and technical education programs, and their relationships with businesses and government forms a broad foundation for the mentoring outreach.

Lisa Cavazos, Med Ed program Director, reported on a survey that asked what motivated people to pursue their careers in science. “The number one thing that motivated them was mentoring, an encounter with a person they respected. The student anticipates that pursuing that career will result in good outcome.” Mentoring can help students better prepare for careers in fields that captured their interest.

Mentors provide a direct link to the real world and expose students to desirable careers. Few things are more powerful for a student than having a mentor the student respects say, “You remind me of myself when I was your age.”

Professionals who want to mentor will be trained on the program’s structure. “I think people are going to be eager to be part of this,” Dr. Perez added, pointing out what a profound impact mentors can have on students and on the community.

Richard Vaughan, president of the Tech Prep Board, called the partnership between RGV Mentors and Tech Prep “a natural. There are lot of good places you can go with this, working with Tech Prep programs and tweaking them.”

Rene Capistran, South Texas president of SpawGlass and a Tech Prep Board member, has worked with successful small-scale mentoring programs that involved talking to high school kids to find their passion, and then letting them follow it. “I’m about not reinventing the wheel. We have needed the vehicle to expand mentoring. I like the idea of RGV Mentors. In my industry, engineers, architects, everyone is lined up to do it. It makes sense.”

Naomi Perales, Texas Gas Service community relations specialist and Tech Prep Board member, saw RGV Mentors as an evolution in Tech Prep’s successful job shadowing programs. Mentors have the opportunity to move a student’s passion for a career into high gear or to turn it off.

Tech Prep Supports Construction Industry Partners
Thursday, August 26, 2010

Construction is a great industry with well-paying professional jobs, said Perry Vaughn, executive director of the Associated General Contractors, RGV Chapter. “Construction is not a default job. We have a shortage of skilled workers. We need more and better construction managers, engineers, draftsmen, architects and people in the trades. But we have to overcome a perception problem with the public. We have a lot of openings for folks who are educated and not that many for ones who dropped out in 10th grade.”

To determine ways of promoting skilled construction career opportunities to high school students, Vaughn and major Rio Grande Valley contractors Murray Thompson, Rene Capistran, Jo Wagner and Brad Smith met with Tech Prep to determine a plan of action.

Construction career exhibitions at last fall’s Education & Career EXPO, for which Tech Prep and the Harlingen Chamber led planning with AGC and others, drew big crowds, Vaughn pointed out. High school students flocked to the hands-on equipment opportunities at Holt CAT, for example, and took the opportunity to talk to recent graduates of construction-related programs, such as architecture, engineering, and project and construction management. Students liked to talk to people with experience in the field. “The EXPO put the hook out. They would stop and ask questions. We have got to show students that there is more to the industry than plumbing parts.”

Targeting the technology used in construction is a good starting point. In order to develop a trained workforce, the challenge is to raise students’ awareness and interest in construction on a regular basis. Rene Capistran of SpawGlass has worked with Brownsville and San Benito high schools through the UTB architecture program in the past. Starting with drafting and engineering classes, that program expanded to architecture and trades classes.

“Reaching out to students and talking to them, going to working job sites with them, you can tell them that this is what construction offers,” Capistran said. They see the trades along with other high-tech career options in construction such as marketing and safety. “They had so many questions. It changed their perception. A building wasn’t just four walls and a roof anymore. The students were very engaged and looked forward to another field trip.”

A speakers’ bureau of construction professionals is one way to provide information and a connection between students and the real world of work. “When kids are listening, you have to show your passion for the industry.”

Teenagers responded to the opportunity to shadow a construction leader. Capistran told them, “When you’re drawing a line, where you put the line matters. What you draw on a document is what we’re going to build. You don’t want to make a half million dollar mistake.”

Implementing a multi-faceted outreach program is going to be easier with Tech Prep involved, Vaughn said. “They know what schools have strong CTE programs going on. San Benito schools have embraced the construction industry in recent years, and they have the strongest programs. He noted that working with those programs, the construction industry can get the point across that high school dropouts are not needed.

On the planning side, Vaughn gave AGC’s support and asked to define the scope of the outreach–how many presenters were needed to reach what number of interested schools. Brad Smith of the Young Contractors Council discussed mentoring. Dr. Belinda Torres, Tech Prep Coordinator, pointed out that that interested students who are mentored by an industry professional are motivated to continue in the field, despite obstacles.

Murray Thompson noted the importance of determining the points to talk about and developing a template for school presentations. Jo Wagner noted that the plumbing apprenticeship program typically has about 25 applicants. After the EXPO last year, the program had 125 applicants. “Many kids don’t understand that you have to have a high school diploma to get into an apprenticeship program.”

The AGC-Tech Prep partners will work with CTE programs throughout the region to get real world construction professionals into classrooms and mentoring programs.

Tech Prep Board to Meet in Weslaco on August 24
Friday, August 20, 2010

The Board of Directors of Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc., will have its regular quarterly meeting at noon on Tuesday, August 24, 2010, in the Board Room of the Rio Grande Valley Partnership Chamber of Commerce. The agenda for the meeting is as follows:

CALL TO ORDER: Richard Vaughan, Board Chair/Meeting Chair

BOARD BYTES: Patricia G. (Pat) Bubb and Dr. Steve Flores

ACTION ITEMS:

1. Consider and Approve Minutes of Meeting of May 25, 2010

2. Consider and Approve Finance & Bylaws Committee report and recommendations

BRIEFING ITEMS:

3. Committee Reports:

A. Data Initiatives: David Merrill and Lisa Prieto

B. Executive and Partnerships: Richard Vaughan

C. Finance and Bylaws: Joe Vasquez and Teri Zamora

D. Lower Rio Grande P-16 Council (Secondary Curriculum &
Instruction [C & I] and Postsecondary C & I):
Dr. Norma Salaiz, Gonzalo Salazar, and Pat Hobbs

E. Marketing and Awards: Naomi Perales and Rene Capistran

F. Nominations: Perry A. Vaughn

G. Technology Initiatives: Naomi Perales

4. Staff Reports

5. Adjourn

Tech Prep Board meetings are open to the public. Contact the Tech Prep office for additional information.

More Than Just Counting Money: ALA Tech Prep Teacher Extern Tony Aguilar
Monday, August 2, 2010

“A bank is not just about counting money. That surprised me,” said Tony Aguilar, a Harlingen High School math teacher who got immersed in banking during an ALA Tech Prep summer externship for teachers.

Working at First Community Bank in Harlingen, Aguilar discovered banking offers careers in technology, accounting, loans, security, and above all in customer service. Primed by his experience job shadowing at First Community, Aguilar was ready to develop real world lesson plans for his Algebra II and Tech Academy math students. He created exercises for them to calculate how payments vary at different loan amounts and interest rates. They will also figure how much it costs to borrow money-- what they would pay in interest.

Beyond the math, Aguilar gained important insights about business culture. “I saw a lot of team work. Not only are employees expected to do their job, but they are expected to take the initiative and help coworkers who have an overload of work. They have to be willing to wear many hats. They do not say ‘it’s not my job.’” The employee who is cross-trained is the one who will be kept in layoffs.

Aguilar valued, above all, the opportunity to spend time with employees and ask them about their jobs. “It’s a common characteristic here that the people are friendly and approachable.” Observation brought home another important point: proper attire.

“It’s important to the bank that employees maintain the bank’s image with a good appearance and being friendly to customers,” Aguilar said. “I see it in school that students are not aware of dress codes (at work)” Taking that lesson to the classroom, he will insist that his students give a presentation to the their class dressed in business casual, as if for a professional interview.

Students have to have verbal, written and basic computer communication skills before they apply for a job as well as dressing for the part, Aguilar discovered. A job application scribbled out messily reflects on the applicant and makes the potential employer question his or her suitability for working with the public.

Anita Boswell, First Community Bank’s Executive Vice President, noted several reasons the bank was eager to host an ALA Tech Prep teacher. She knew from Harlingen Mayor Chris Boswell’s Harlingen 100 Plan that employers frequently express concerns about finding a new generation of skilled workers. “I thought we need to be in on that,” she said, exposing teachers to the skills and work ethic employees must have to succeed. “It’s been a real nice experience having Tony here.”

Boswell said both the teacher and the bank benefitted from his overview of all the bank’s departments and how they interacted. She described ALA as a worthwhile program. “The more we can get the educators to see what skills employers expect, the better it is for everyone.”

Tony Aguilar and Anita Boswell, from First Community Bank.

Superintendents' Meeting Set for September 2 in Weslaco
Monday, July 26, 2010

Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley is pleased to announce that Tech Prep's Annual Meeting of Superintendents will be held as follows:

DATE: Thursday, September 2, 2010
TIME: 8:00 to 10:00 a.m.
LOCATION: Weslaco, Texas (exact location to be determined)

Tech Prep staff will provide information regarding the meeting location and agenda directly to superintendents closer to the date of the meeting.

For additional information, contact Eliza Groff in the Tech Prep offices.