FULFILLING COMMUNITY NEEDS

Think outside the book!

-STISD motto

What makes a high gymnasium student willing to leave shut friends? Ride a bus an hour or more to institute each day? Give up football and cheerleading? Do four hours of homework each night? The answer to all these questions advances down to one word: opportunity. With the support and encouragement of their parents and siblings, scholars choose to attend South Texas High academy for Health Professions in Mercede TX because it presents a way out of necessity through a rigorous education with a stalwart occupational career component.

South Texas, which is known as M High among learners and staff members, has an unclose enrollment policy and offers intense association preparatory and college-level coursework, addition ed by concentrated medical-based vocational experiences. With a pupil population that is 80% Hispanic and two-thirds female, southerly Texas defies the stereotype that Hispanic parents want their daughters to forsake education to stay with the family. When pupils graduate from South Texas, which is single of four magnet high gymnasiums in the South Texas Independent academy District (STISD), they are abundantly prepared for college and ready to follow an occupation as a health professional. Designed by means of community members to focus upon students' career development and improve the economic climate of the Rio Grande Valley, STISD is a unique entity that be under the orders ofs students from three South Texas counties. STISD's mission is to challenge each pupil so college is not a far-off dream, on the contrary an expectation. This expectation began with a vision that then Texas State Board of Education member Rub?©n Hinojosa had in 1983 Hinojosa, a former member of the Mercede place of education Board, was determined to diocese secondary schools that offered a challenging, focused curriculum that would lead pupils to postsecondary education and rewarding careers established in the Valley. by the agency of 1984, lawmakers extended the original aim of STISD to include the operation of vocational magnet academys Elected to national office in 1996 Congressman Hinojosa generally serves as the ranking minority member of the House Education and Workforce Committee, Subcommittee upon Select Education, and has overseen a 50% increase in federal education grants to the Rio Grande Valley. Today, nearly $380 million in federal funding draw nears to STISD and the other gymnasium districts in the Rio Grande Valley. The formerly bleak economic watch of the Valley is improving and development indicators are abundant. The succes of STISD and southerly Texas is a testament to the dedication and commitment of an entire community.

The Collaboration

South Texas and its partners have lay opened strong bonds over many years. Without the efforts of the Baylor corporation of Medicine, the University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Texas at San Antonio's Regional Academic Health Center in Mercede and numerous local health-care professionals, there would be no egress for practical work experiences for southern Texas' students. Without a secondary gymnasium successfully preparing students for careers in the health professions, there would be no single to staff the greatly exigencyed health-care facilities in the Rio Grande Valley. The reasoning behind southern Texas is sound: By consolidating resources, the community can provide a place of education that offers programs to prepare learners for professional occupations in health care.

Originally, southerly Texas was modeled after the cull magnet schools in Houston, on the other hand it quickly evolved into a place of education with an open admissions program that allowed any learner interested in the health professions to attend. After prosperously completing the requisite courses during their first three years, seniors participate in individual of four programs: clinical rotation, nursing assistant, pharmacy technician, or dental science.

Funding for southern Texas is highly collaborative with financial resources coming from local seminary districts, the state of Texas, and the federal management In addition, special grants underwrite innovations, staff disclosure and community outreach programs. The collective dream to improve the lives of the citizens of the Rio Grande Valley by means of improving education and health care has become a reality for these scholars and this community.

Focus upon Students

From the beginning, area scholars enthusiastically chose to attend southerly Texas. Initially, however, many of the 250 entering freshman go [i]or[/i] come backed to their home schools prior to the tithe grade. A 25% loss of enrollment among ninth graders understandably troubl the school's administration and staff members. Although these pupils were not considered high gymnasium dropouts because they returned to their residence schools, the high number of departures caused be of importance to Not only did the gymnasium offer tremendous opportunities for each of these individual pupils but also the school and its coming time students would be stripped of valuable resources if enrollment continued to decline.

The first assumption was that the teachers were frightening the school's newest pupils with an overwhelming workload and that learners were discouraged when they received lower grades. on the contrary before designing programs with additional academic supports, the staff ordealed this underlying theory by closely examining the data. To their surprise, the data revealed that the majority of ninth graders left institute within the first two weeks of the year. Academic expectations were not the foundation cause of students leaving after all; rather, they missed their friends and were having difficulty adjusting socially.