ON DAY DE LA VIRGEN DE GUADALUPE, A&M, TSC SIGN MOU

 

 Special to El Rrun-Rrun

4. Consideration and possible action on approval of Memorandum of Understanding and Certificate between Texas Southmost College and Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES)

It has taken months – perhaps going on a year – but the efforts of local community colleges, vocational schools, and the University of Texas A & M will reach a successful conclusion next Monday, Dec. 12, when the board of the Texas Southmost College and the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) approve and sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to join in efforts to train the local workforce during a specially-called meeting.

A&M recently inked MOUs with the Brownsville Independent School District and the Los Fresnos CISD, Texas State Technical College, and Point Isabel CISD at a ceremony at the Port of Brownsville. 

The meeting and signing of the A&M-TSC MOU will be held at noon Monday at the Gorgas Board Room at Texas Southmost College, 80 Fort Brown, Brownsville, Texas.

The joining of the efforts of both institutions is hailed as a watershed event to raise the proficiency and skills level of the local workforce by TSC board president Adela Garza, who said the beneficiaries would be the students, community and manufacturing base of the Lower Rio Grande Valley. 

"We are committed to work for the students and our community," Garza said of the A&M-TSC MOU. "TSC has been in the forefront acquiring the facilities and training for them and – with the fine leadership of Brownsville's Mike Hernandez as a regent on the A&M board and Chancellor John Sharp – we see this collaboration with A&M as a continuation of this commitment." 

"This initiative includes ISDs (BISD included) and the three community colleges offering technical educational pathways starting in seventh grade all the way up to Ph.D.s in engineering," Hernandez said. " The Rio Grande Valley will have the best trained workforce in the country. After our MOUs, it’s up to the Economic Development Councils and the Port of Brownsville to recruit the manufacturers."

Following the signing, the college will host a lunch and then a tour of the TSC vocational-technical facilities available to students across the South Texas area.