Two years ago, high school students in Eagle Pass listened to a presentation from representatives of the College of Architecture at Texas A&M University.
Intrigued, 44 of the students wanted to visit the Texas A&M campus. What stood between them and a campus tour was the journey to College Station, a journey that would later involve the college’s Center for Housing and Urban Development, campus groups, other educational associations and individuals who wanted to make the trip become reality.
This fall, ten of those students will begin classes at Texas A&M.
“Myself, Pete Lara, Mark Clayton and Laura Treviño were making presentations in border cities regarding the College of Architecture and its different programs,” said Oscar Muñoz, CHUD deputy director. “Part of what we’ve been trying to do is connect Texas A&M to as many border cities as we can.”
Lara and Treviño are associate directors in CHUD’s Rio Grande region, and at the time Clayton was the Department of Architecture’s interim head. The presentations the Eagle Pass students heard from College of Architecture personnel are part of an effort by the college to recruit minority students from border areas.
In addition to talking with students, college representatives also spoke to superintendents, principals and counselors from high schools in the border region.
Nearly a year after the college made a presentation in Eagle Pass, CHUD learned students there were interested in visiting Texas A&M. Eagle Pass is on the Texas-Mexico border approximately two hours north of Laredo.
How to get to College Station was another matter. “The students started having all kinds of fundraisers to raise money to rent a bus to come here,” said Muñoz, who said it would cost $2,000 to get a bus for the trip.
“CHUD started trying to help them make arrangements,” he said. “We started making as many contacts as possible to help raise funds, such as the Mays Business School and the Mexican-American Latino Faculty Association.”
Muñoz said Tito Guerrero, Texas A&M vice president and associate provost for diversity, became involved in the fundraising effort as did Victor Arizpe, head of the university’s Hispanic studies department, and Ed Murgia, associate professor of sociology.
After all parties had finally raised enough money for the trip, one more hurdle remained.
“At the last minute, we got the bad news that the bus company had upped the cost of the rental because of rising diesel prices,” said Muñoz. Personnel at Texas A&M’s recruiting office in San Antonio heard of the situation, stepped in and paid for the remainder of the bus rental, and the Eagle Pass students were finally on their way.
Once on campus, the high schoolers got to see the sights on campus, attended a baseball game and went to midnight yell. They also listened to presentations from financial aid and a number of colleges.
They also heard from three Aggies who were from Eagle Pass.
“They were very straightforward and very honest with the kids, telling them they were going to have to start studying hard to make it here,” said Muñoz. One of the Aggies who talked to the high school students was a graduate student in the geosciences program who had just finished defending her masters’ thesis.
Charles Graham, at the time the executive associate dean of the College of Architecture, and Jorge Vanegas, CHUD director and professor of architecture, also talked to the students. Graham is now dean at the University of Oklahoma and Vanegas is now the College of Architecture’s interim dean.
Muñoz said CHUD is looking to continue to make presentations to high school students in the border region.
“We want to focus on El Paso,” he said. “There’s no A&M extension in El Paso, but there are possible A&M students there.”
