FULFILLING COMMUNITY NEEDS

Think outside the book!

-STISD motto

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

South Texas, which is known as M High among learners and staff members, has an lay open enrollment policy and offers intense society preparatory and college-level coursework, addition ed by concentrated medical-based vocational experiences. With a scholar population that is 80% Hispanic and two-thirds female, southern 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 individual of four magnet high place of educations in the South Texas Independent academy District (STISD), they are full prepared for college and ready to chase an occupation as a health professional. Designed by the agency 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 labor fors students from three South Texas counties. STISD's mission is to challenge each scholar so college is not a far-off dream, on the other hand 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 institute Board, was determined to diocese secondary schools that offered a challenging, focused curriculum that would lead scholars to postsecondary education and rewarding careers established in the Valley. through 1984, lawmakers extended the original intent of STISD to include the operation of vocational magnet place of educations 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 approachs to STISD and the other academy districts in the Rio Grande Valley. The formerly bleak economic watch of the Valley is improving and expansion indicators are abundant. The succes of STISD and southern Texas is a testament to the dedication and commitment of an entire community.

The Collaboration

South Texas and its partners have unraveled 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 vent for practical work experiences for southerly Texas' students. Without a secondary academy successfully preparing students for careers in the health professions, there would be no single to staff the greatly straited health-care facilities in the Rio Grande Valley. The reasoning behind southerly Texas is sound: By consolidating resources, the community can provide a gymnasium that offers programs to prepare learners for professional occupations in health care.

Originally, southern Texas was modeled after the pick out magnet schools in Houston, on the other hand it quickly evolved into a institute with an open admissions program that allowed any pupil 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 southerly Texas is highly collaborative with financial resources coming from local place of education districts, the state of Texas, and the federal conduct In addition, special grants underwrite innovations, staff disentanglement and community outreach programs. The collective dream to improve the lives of the citizens of the Rio Grande Valley through 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 southern Texas. Initially, however, many of the 250 entering freshman turn 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 scholars were not considered high academy dropouts because they returned to their abiding-place schools, the high number of departures caused bear upon Not only did the institute offer tremendous opportunities for each of these individual pupils but also the school and its time to come 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 learners with an overwhelming workload and that learners were discouraged when they received lower grades. on the other hand 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 bottom cause of students leaving after all; rather, they missed their friends and were having difficulty adjusting socially.