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November 5, 2015
Vol. 2, Issue 10
Board of Trustees

Chairman of the Board
Anna U. Bustamante
District 3

Vice Chair
Dr. Yvonne Katz
District 7

Secretary
Joe Alderete, Jr.
District 1

Asst. Secretary
Clint Kingsbery
District 8

Denver McClendon
District 2

Marcelo S. Casillas
District 4

Roberto Zarate
District 5

Dr. Gene Sprague
District 6

James Rindfuss
District 9

Sami C. Adames
Student Trustee

Chancellor

Dr. Bruce Leslie
Alamo Colleges
Trustee Zárate, ACCT Chair, Announces Action Agenda  
(l to r) Alamo Colleges' Trustee Dr. Gene Sprague, B.J. "Red" McCombs, Trustee and ACCT Chair Roberto Zárate and Alamo Colleges' Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie were on hand for the announcement of Zarate's action agenda for community colleges.



At a press conference November 4, Alamo Colleges' Trustee and Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) chair Roberto Zárate announced his action agenda for improving student success at community colleges nationwide. He was joined by friend and supporter B.J. "Red" McCombs, Alamo Colleges' Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie and Trustee Gene Sprague. 

Speaking at the event, Zarate stressed the crucial role community colleges play in improving the economic well being of students, their families and the larger community.

"Community colleges are the pathway to the middle class for the students they serve," he said. "I strongly believe that community colleges are critical to providing educational opportunities to underserved populations, not only in our area, but across the nation," he added. Zárate sees his term as ACCT chair as an opporunity to share the Alamo Colleges' successful strategies for increasing college completion with community colleges nationwide. 

McCombs, who has known Zárate since he was the principal of Mary Hull Elementary School, praised Zárate for his leadership ability and his dedication to improving the lives of students during his 36-year career in education and his 12 years of service on the Alamo Colleges Board of Trustees. Leslie applauded McComb's comments, adding that Zárate's actions have always been true to his motto, " puro corazón."

Zárate will serve a one-year term as ACCT chair.



Alamo Colleges One of Four Texas Community Colleges Chosen for National Pathways Project
The Alamo Colleges is one of only four community colleges in Texas
selected to participate in the national AACC Pathways Project.


The Alamo Colleges is one of only four community colleges in Texas and one of 30 colleges nationwide selected through a highly competitive national process to participate in the Pathways Project, led by the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). The 30 colleges will work to implement guided academic and career pathways at scale for all students. 

AACC is coordinating a national partnership to build capacity for community colleges to implement a pathways approach to student success and college completion.  Partners include Achieving the Dream, Inc., the Aspen Institute, the Center for Community College Student Engagement, the Community College Research Center, Jobs for the Future, the National Center for Inquiry and Improvement, and Public Agenda. 

Partners have participated actively in the college selection process and also are substantively involved in designing a model series of six two-day pathways institutes, each focusing on key elements in a fully scaled pathway model for community colleges. The project is funded through a $5.2 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

The selected colleges will be the first to participate in the pathways institute series over the next 2.5 years and will work with expert coaches at those institutes.  In addition, the participating colleges themselves will contribute to learning both across the initiative and more broadly, across the community college field.  

"This is a great opportunity to take our initiatives that improve student completion, including the AlamoINSTITUTES and AlamoADVISE, to another level through the collaboration we will have as a participant in this project," said Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie. "We are involved in collaboration at the local, state and national level to realize our goals for student completion," he added.

The Ranger student newspaper was named a finalist for the
Pacemaker Award at the National College Media Convention. 

Alamo Colleges - San Antonio College's Ranger Newspaper Named Finalist for National Pacemaker Award

The Alamo Colleges - San Antonio College Ranger student newspaper was one of seven community college newspapers in the nation named a finalist for the Pacemaker Award at the National College Media Convention recently. The Pacemaker, college journalism's preeminent honor, is awarded annually by the Associated Collegiate Press (ACP).

At the convention, four members of the Ranger staff competed in an onsite multimedia competition which challenged them to find a "slice of life" story and produce a written story, dominant photo, photo story and multimedia element using mobile devices within a 12-hour window.

The Ranger's entry placed in all five categories. Freshman photographer Danielle Kelly won first place for Best Dominant Photo and was second in the Best Photo Story category. Sophomore Associate Managing Editor Kyle Cotton took second in Best Written Story while sophomore photographer Daniel Carde was named Honorable Mention in the Best Video category. Kelly, Cotton, Carde and Spring 2015 Editor Katherine Garcia collectively placed third for Best Headline. 



The Alamo Colleges mission is: empowering our diverse communities for success. Our vision is: the Alamo Colleges will be the best in the nation in student success and performance excellence. The Alamo Colleges is one district with five community colleges serving more than 90,000 students annually from Bexar County and seven other counties in our service area. We provide an affordable, quality college education that leads to associate degrees, certificates and transfers to four-year universities. Hundreds of thousands of Bexar County residents who have come through the Alamo Colleges education programs are major contributors to the economy and culture of Sa n Antonio.