Community-Wide Effort Launched To Forge Pathways Leading Students to College, Good  Jobs

Representatives from the Alamo Colleges, educational institutions and community and governmental organizations presented a progress report on efforts to forge academic and career pathways.

At a press conference March 30, Alamo Colleges' Chancellor Dr. Bruce Leslie, Vice Chancellor for Student Success Dr. Adelina S. Silva and representatives from 24 regional partners reported on the progress of their effort to forge academic and career pathways among regional school districts, higher education institutions, community-based organizations and civic and business leaders to promote greater student success. Sharing the podium with Leslie were: Bexar County Judge Nelson Wolff; University of Texas at San Antonio President Dr. Ricardo Romo; Jared Skok, executive director, foundation, and director, community investments, Tesoro; Dr. Lloyd Verstuyft, superintendent, Southwest Independent School District; and Dr. Adriana Contreras, executive director, San Antonio Education Partnership.

Today's announcement served as a follow-up to the first-ever Alamo Area College Access and Completion Summit which was held last fall. At the Summit, more than 500 advisors, counselors and administrators from school districts and higher education joined community members and business leaders to establish a theoretical and research framework for the practical application of effective academic and career advising. The Summit represents the only effort of this kind in the nation which seeks to align advising models across institutions in order to increase college completion and prepare students for good jobs.

Summit participants agreed on an action plan which includes: building a national model framework for collaborative work and advancement; building a common language of goals, expectations and analyzing and linking data; creating an online portal to support and educate parents, students and the community on higher education culture, language, processes, requirements and programs; developing cross-institution technology to provide seamless access to information and processes; and holding a second Summit on October 14, 2016, at Trinity University.

Alamo Colleges - Northeast Lakeview Students Earn Honor Society Recognition

Two students from Alamo Colleges - Northeast Lakeview College have been recognized by Phi Theta Kappa (PTK), the national honor society for two-year colleges. Kayla Castro and Juan Ortiz were named to the All Texas Academic 2016 Team and were recognized as two of the top students from two-year colleges in Texas who are chosen for outstanding academic achievement and exemplary community service. They were honored with students from other colleges across the state at a ceremony at the State Capitol.

Castro will graduate from the Alamo Colleges in spring 2016 and has been accepted to the music school and business school at the University of North Texas, where she will be studying entrepreneurship and music education. She hopes to create a non-profit organization that will provide music opportunities to low-income individuals. She is currently a music teacher at Alamo Music Center and has maintained a 4.0 GPA. Her ultimate goal is to touch the lives of individuals through music.

Ortiz also will graduate in spring 2016 and transfer to the University of Texas at San Antonio, where he will major in biology/pre-med. His ultimate goal is to be a sports medicine doctor.