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August 15, 2016
Vol. 3, Issue 26
Board of Trustees

Chairman of the Board
Dr. Yvonne Katz
District 7

Vice Chair
Marcelo Casillas
District 4

Secretary
Dr. Gene Sprague
District 6

Asst. Secretary
Denver McClendon
District 2

Joe Alderete, Jr.
District 1

Anna U. Bustamante
District 3

Roberto Zarate
District 5

Clint Kingsbery
District 8

James Rindfuss
District 9

Emmanuel Nyong
Student Trustee

Chancellor

Dr. Bruce Leslie
Alamo Colleges
Alamo Colleges, Partners
Unveil "Workforce on Wheels" Mobile Community Resource
Welcoming the WOW Bus are (l to r) David Nisivoccia, SAHA Interim president and CEO; Dr. Yvonne Katz, Alamo Colleges Board Chair; Dr. Morris A. Stribling, DPM, SAHA Board Chairman; Belkiss Rodriguez, Alamo University Center director; and Gail Hathaway, Workforce Solutions Alamo CEO.

At a ceremony August 6, the Alamo Colleges, the San Antonio Housing Authority (SAHA) and Workforce Solutions Alamo (WSA) unveiled a state-of-the-art Workforce on Wheels (WOW) bus that's custom-designed to help people in the community find and apply for jobs, get training, gain work certifications, apply to college and apply for financial aid for college. Featured speakers at the event were: Alamo Colleges Board Chair Dr. Yvonne Katz; SAHA CEO David Nisivoccia; Gail Hathaway, CEO,  Workforce Solutions Alamo; Morris A. Stribling, DPM, SAHA Board Chairman; and Belkiss Rodriguez, director, Alamo University Center. A group of students from SAHA's Summer Youth internship program helped with the unveiling.

The Workforce on Wheels, or WOW Bus, is a mobile technology lab that's custom-designed to help people in the community find and apply for jobs, get training, gain work certifications, or apply to college and request financial aid. Instead of people needing to go to a job fair, or having to head across town for skills training or to find out how to apply for school, the WOW Bus comes to your neighborhood. The blue, custom-wrapped, 40-foot RV is wifi-enabled, has 12 computer workstations and a printer. An instructor/trainer is available to help users access the online resources they need to search and apply for jobs or school.

The WOW Bus will help San Antonio increase the number of skilled workers in the local labor force - providing a boost to the city's economy. It's an attention-getting approach that this partnership thinks will pick up more supporters along the way.
 


Alamo Colleges - San Antonio College Professor
to be Honored with ACCT Faculty Member Award
SAC English Professor Dr. Liz Báez Aguilar is the recipient of the 2016 Western Region Faculty Member award from the Association of Community College Trustees.


Dr. Liz Báez Aguilar, Alamo Colleges - San Antonio College (SAC) professor of English, has been selected to receive the 2016 Western Region Faculty Member award from the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). The award, which recognizes and honors outstanding community college faculty members, will be presented at the Annual ACCT Leadership Congress to be held in October in New Orleans. Aguilar was nominated for the award by Alamo Colleges for her excellence in teaching and for leadership in higher education.

Aguilar has developed several service learning programs to engage her students with the surrounding community. These include the Bienestar Health Program to promote diabetes awareness among SAC students and in the community, and The Community in Schools Project, where students in her Freshman Composition II class would teach elementary school children about different literary forms. 

She collaborated with English, Science, and Math faculty members in a research project to help students apply foundational concepts of writing into the classroom and in coursework. Away from campus, she has devoted her time to educating the community. She has taught a writing course for high school students from inner city schools as part of a medical preparation program for the Mexican-American Physicians Program. She also created an intensive writing project for 4th grade students at Will Rogers Elementary in the San Antonio School District. 

Aguilar has taught at SAC since 1997. She is the author of  three short stores which were included in Kaleidoscope: A Collection of Short Stories. Her poem, "Growing Up," was published in the Love to Mama: A Tribute to Mothers and was reprinted in several anthologies. Aguilar also has presented more than 30 papers at community colleges, universities, and other organizations both nationally and internationally. Aguilar holds a doctorate of philosophy from Texas A&M University, a master's in Adult and Higher Education from the University of Texas at San Antonio, and a bachelor's and master's in English from St. Mary's University.
PAC student Jonathan Ahumada participates in the Alamo Colleges' Community-Based work-study program.

Alamo Colleges' Community-Based
Work-Study Program Benefits Students

The Alamo Colleges Community-Based Work-Study program  offers students the opportunity to learn valuable skills while working for a local non-profit. Alamo Colleges - Palo Alto College student Jonathan Ahumada is one of the students who has benefitted from the program.

Ahumada is pursuing an associate degree of science in mathematics and plans to continue his education by earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics and philosophy. His ultimate career goal is to work with non-profit and governmental agencies in systems design and application. He wants to help organizations improve effectiveness by implementing systems that increase the impact of the funds they receive, while also creating a more fluid management hierarchy for workers to be able to make better use of their skill sets.

Ahumada is a work-study student at American Indians in Texas at the Spanish Colonial Missions, a non-profit that works to preserve the culture of the First Peoples who resided in the Texas missions. 


Let us hear from you! Send your comments on our newsletter to   [email protected]. 

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.