Rio Grande Guardian's Podcast

MCALLEN, Texas - The executive director of the South Texas Manufacturers Association has given an overview of apprenticeship programs in the Rio Grande Valley. Mike Willis was a keynote speaker at South Texas College’s 2nd Annual Apprenticeship Summit.  “The apprenticeship program is a proven model that has been used for many years, as Dr. Solis pointed out. In our region, the construction industr...

MCALLEN, Texas - Educator Beatrize Valenzuela received one of the biggest cheers at South Texas College’s 2nd Annual Apprenticeship Summit. The Region One Education Service Center STEM/CTE specialist received warm applause following her opening remarks during a panel discussion on partnerships and apprentice perspectives.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Education and Math. CTE stands for Car...

MCALLEN, Texas - Educator Beatrize Valenzuela received one of the biggest cheers at South Texas College’s 2nd Annual Apprenticeship Summit. The Region One Education Service Center STEM/CTE specialist received warm applause following her opening remarks during a panel discussion on partnerships and apprentice perspectives.  STEM stands for Science, Technology, Education and Math. CTE stands for Car...

MCALLEN, Texas – The Rio Grande Valley is going to hear a lot more about a new technology platform designed to help nonprofits and governmental agencies collaborate to help vulnerable members of society. This is the prediction of Mario Reyna, one of the leaders of the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force. The task force was set up by Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez to help reduce poverty. Reyn...

EDINBURG, Texas - Jeff Ward, dean of the college of fine arts at UT-Rio Grande Valley, moderated a panel discussion at the 6th Annual International Conference on Border Studies.  The conference was co-hosted by UTRGV and the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. The theme of the conference was “Transborderism: Reimagining Social Space.” As well as asking questions of the panelists, Ward offered his...

EDINBURG, Texas - Marcela Ronquillo Hinojosa, director of EarthX Latin America and former first lady of Matamoros, was a panelist at the recent 6th Annual International Conference on Border Studies.  The event was co-hosted by UT-Rio Grande Valley and the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. The theme of the conference was “Transborderism: Reimagining Social Space.” Speakers from 15 countries and m...

EDINBURG, Texas - The 6th Annual International Conference on Border Studies was co-hosted by UT-Rio Grande Valley and the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas. The theme of the conference was “Transborderism: Reimagining Social Space.” Speakers from 15 countries and more than 30 national and international academic institutions participated. According to the organizers, the conference sought to “faci...

EDINBURG, Texas - Former state Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr., is recommending the revival of the Good Neighbor Commission. According to the Texas State Historical Association, the Good Neighbor Commission was established in 1943 as a state agency "to handle social, cultural, and economic problems of Mexican Americans in Texas and to strengthen political ties of Texas with Mexico and other Latin Ameri...

AUSTIN, Texas - Educate Texas wants to see more state funding for teacher residency programs, similar to the one set up by UT-Rio Grande Valley and Harlingen CISD. In an exclusive audio interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service , Ryan Franklin spoke in-depth about the topic. Franklin is senior director for policy and advocacy at Educate Texas. “With regard to the retention...

MCALLEN, Texas - Luis Diaz, the interim executive director of the RGVMPO, gave a detailed update on his group’s work at a recent South Texas Manufacturers Association meeting. RGVMPO stands for Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization. The STMA meeting took place at the DoubleTree Suites McAllen. Diaz has temporarily taken over the hot seat at the MPO because the previous executive dir...

MISSION, TEXAS - In an effort to provide more of its programs away from its two main campuses, UT-Rio Grande Valley has opened satellite centers across the region. One of those is in Mission, where full-time program specialist Omar Rodriguez assists local businesses from the Center for Education and Economic Development (CEED). Bringing UTRGV to Mission was one of the issues Mayor Norie Gonzalez G...

MCALLEN, Texas - Luis Diaz, the interim executive director of the RGVMPO, gave a detailed update on his group’s work at a recent South Texas Manufacturers Association meeting. RGVMPO stands for Rio Grande Valley Metropolitan Planning Organization. The STMA meeting took place at the DoubleTree Suites McAllen. In his 30-minute power point presentation, Diaz explained what RGVMPO does and which entit...

EDINBURG, Texas - Ron Garza, associate vice president for workforce and economic development at UT-Rio Grande Valley, has provided the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service with his analysis of America’s Additive Foundry.  UTRGV was awarded $5 million by the Department of Defense. With the funds the university has set up the America’s Additive Foundry Consortium. It launched last week. “I...

PHARR, Texas - Index Reynosa Fundación wants to add additional charity events throughout the year in order to augment its main fundraiser, an annual golf tournament held at the City of Pharr’s Tierra Del Sol Golf Club. Index is the largest trade association for the maquiladora industry in Mexico and one of its largest chapters is in Reynosa. Index Reynosa Fundación’s most recent golf tournament wa...

MISSION, Texas - Those attending a recent conference in the Rio Grande Valley heard how 20 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product is spent on health.  “That is more than twice that of other industrialized nations. And we lead the world in chronic disease, congestive heart failure, diabetes, neonatal mortality rates,” said Eric Weaver, executive director of the Institute for Advancing Healt...

MISSION, Texas - Keith Smith, senior vice president at Western Governor’s University’s Leavitt School of Health, says his university will continue to help the Rio Grande Valley. In partnership with AltaCair, WGU recently hosted the Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference at the Mission Event Center. “Not everybody came today that we would like to have seen here. But, it's really importa...

MISSION, Texas - Teach For America has released a list of colleges and universities contributing the greatest number of alumni to its teaching corps.  Among large schools, UT-Rio Grande Valley is part of the top ten contributing the greatest number of alumni to the TFA corps, with more than 19 graduates leading classrooms this school year. “Establishing strong recruitment partnerships with the Uni...

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - State Sen. Eddie Lucio recently held a pro-school choice event in Brownsville. Veteran broadcaster Ron Whitlock, of Ron Whitlock Reports, interviewed Lucio afterwards. Here is an audio recording of the interview. Editor's Note: The interview took place before Gov. Greg Abbott's decision to add public school finance to the call of the current special legislative sessi...

MISSION, Texas - Four Republican senators held a press conference at Anzalduas Park in Mission last week to denounced President Biden’s border security policy. With the Rio Grande and Mexico as a backdrop, Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas, Mike Lee of Utah, and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska claimed the president has an “open borders” policy and all migrants from across the world have to do is s...

MCALLEN, Texas - The reason dozens of universities and colleges from other parts of the country are actively recruiting in the Rio Grande Valley can be explained in part by the so-called “Demographic Cliff.” This is the opinion of Dr. Adolfo Santos, first assistant provost at the Texas A&M University Higher Eduction Center in McAllen. Santos is also a professor of political science at the Bush...

MCALLEN, Texas - The director for undergraduate recruitment for the school of education and human development at Texas A&M University has spoken about his college’s efforts to train more teachers. Paul Timoney was on hand to talk to students thinking of becoming a teacher at an Open House held at A&M’s Higher Education Center in McAllen. “There's a critical need for teachers around th...

MCALLEN, Texas - Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez has committed an additional $60,000 in American Rescue Funds to help HOPE Family Health Clinic build a larger network of mental health professionals. A press release from Cortez’s office says the health professionals will collaborate in, guide, and practice trauma therapy in order to “strengthen the skills of mental health professionals in Hidal...

MISSION, Texas - Physicians can determine someone’s health more by their zip code than their genetic code. That was one of the comments AltaCair co-founder and principal Edwin F. Estevez made in an exclusive interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service at the Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference.  The conference was co-hosted by Western Governors University and AltaCa...

MISSION, Texas - In their program notes, Western Governors University and AltaCair explained they co-hosted the recent Accelerator 2023 RGV Health Equity Conference. “The research-backed program leverages the power of coopetition (collaboration with competitors, thought leadership, and action-oriented mindset to drive discussions around the socio-economic and environmental factors contributing to...

McALLEN, Texas - Edelmiro F. Escamilla is program coordinator for the construction science degree on offer at Texas A&M’s Higher Education Center in McAllen (HECM). In an exclusive interview with the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service, Escamilla spoke about the construction academies Texas A&M holds during the summer.  “We go out to high schools, we work with Gear Up here in th...