For more than 80 years, the Alamo Colleges District has expanded access to higher education and transformed lives across Bexar County and beyond.

Each of its five colleges Saint Philip's San Antonio College, Palo Alto, Northwest Vista, and Northeast Lakeview, has empowered generations of students to achieve their highest potential.

Providing high quality, affordable education.

As we celebrate this milestone, we reflect on the lives touched and look forward to a future that continues to prove education is the catalyst for positive change.

This is the story of reaching one's full potential.

They saw something in me at that time that I didn't see in myself, that helped make the difference.

A story of moving forward even when the path isn't clear.

I was in a dark place, and Alamo colleges really just turned on the lights.

Compression is a story of helping ease the journey for the next generation.

My encounter students like that is really to kind of help them, so they don't necessarily have to go through those similar hurdles that delay them to kind of getting to what their definition of success is.

A story of rising above circumstances.

It was difficult.

It was a change.

We did not have a permanent home.

This is a story of turning struggle into strength.

I'm very emotional about it because I'm very proud.

I'm proud that I'm able to sit here and share that I'm a success through, you know, the opportunities that I've been given.

This is the story of the Alamo Colleges district.

We're fortunate to live in San Antonio.

I think a consideration is the high rate of population growth and economic growth.

But we also need to be mindful that we have a high rate of intergenerational poverty.

We know the difference between struggle and success is being able to get that credential to provide a better life for our students and for their families.

The Alamo Colleges District Moonshot is to end intergenerational poverty in San Antonio through education and training.

The Alamo Colleges District is the largest provider of higher education in South Texas, with more than 90,000 students taking credit.

Workforce and continuing education courses annually, the district serves an eight county area and is made up of five individually accredited colleges and seven regional and neighborhood centers.

We know a credential from the Alamo colleges, right?

Is the difference between struggle and success a direct return on investment for our students can equate to about $9,400.

That's a difference between a high school diploma and a certificate or associate's degree.

And, over $400,000 in their lifetime.

So you can take that directly to the bank.

Alamo Colleges District's legacy begins more than 100 years ago, in 1898, when Bishop James Steptoe Johnston of the Episcopal Diocese of West Texas established a Saint Philip's Normal and Industrial School.

It was meant to be a trade school where they taught young women how to sell.

It was just, you know, first generation slavery, giving African-American women an opportunity to be able to maintain themselves financially.

And there was still, you know, act of racism here.

And there were restrictions on what African Americans could and could not do.

But that was one of the industries.

Not only could you work for someone, but you could also work for yourself as a tailor and do those types of things.

A major turning point comes in 1902, when Artemisia Boughton, the daughter of formerly enslaved parents, joined Saint Philip's as an administrator and teacher.

We owe the the legacy and the trajectory of Saint Philip's College to Artemisia Boughton, who served as the dean, and was sainted right, received sainthood from the Episcopal Church in 1917.

Saint Philip's relocates to its current East San Antonio location on MLK drive.

Under Bowden's leadership.

By 1927, the school had grown from a small vocational school to Saint Philip's Junior College, the only college in San Antonio to accept black students.

Due to individuals like Saint Artemisia.

She made the difference.

She was not afraid to say, give them a chance.

I need your help and let me tell you why.

Everybody has something to contribute.

Give them an opportunity and a chance.

In 1925, to support the growing demand for accessible, affordable higher education in San Antonio, the University of Texas System establishes University Junior College.

Then one year later, the school is renamed San Antonio Junior College and it moves to South Alamo Street.

The late 1920s are a time of growth for San Antonio Junior College.

The Ranger student papers born and sports are added to the college, including girls athletics.

In the 1920s also ushered in the Great Depression, which puts immense financial strain on Saint Philip's Junior College.

The Episcopal Church, which founded Saint Philip's, is unable to continue financially supporting the college.

Saint Artemisia was also a visionary because when they needed funding and they needed money, she didn't just stop, she just didn't kick the door.

She knocked the door in and she went and let the community know Saint Philip's is here.

It's viable, it is successful and you need to pour money into this institution so that our community, the members who make up the community, can make a difference.

Bowden even uses her own money to pay for school supplies and teacher salaries.

She also begins a campaign to have the San Antonio School Board assumed fiscal responsibility for Saint Philip's.

In 1942, Saint Philip's Junior College is accepted as the first black junior college governed by a city school board.

Her total goal was to put into the viability of Saint Philip's College and look at the legacy that she left.

Look at where we here today.

She retired as the dean of Saint Philip's College, even though the leader at San Antonio College was the president of the board of trustees.

Appropriately so.

Then posthumously awarded Artemisia Boudin with the title of emeritus president of Saint Philip's College.

As World War two is coming to an end and soldiers are coming home to San Antonio, there's a need for more facilities to accommodate growing enrollment.

In 1945, San Antonio Junior College, later renamed San Antonio College and Saint Philip's College, joined to form the San Antonio Union Junior College District.

Despite the merger, creating a unified administrative structure.

This is the Jim Crow era, and racial segregation is still legally enforced throughout Texas and the South.

At one time, we couldn't go to San Antonio College.

Saint Philip was all we had, and this was long before me.

But I remember the focus of of segregation.

There were just so many restrictions at that time.

And so by the time I got to Saint Philip's in the early 70s, there was definitely change that had taken place.

And you could see that.

But still, at that time, the population of students who were here were minority students.

So we worked together as a collective body in order to help each other, even as students get to that next level.

Racial integration of the colleges doesn't occur until 1955, a year after the landmark Brown v Board of Education Supreme Court decision that rules racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional.

I grew up on the east side of San Antonio, near Saint Louis, and everybody knew everyone.

It was a very cohesive community, and it made a difference.

And you moving forward, because they encourage you to move to the next level, that you could always do better.

I'm a middle child, so I have two brothers in front of me and brothers, two brothers and a sister behind me.

But when it came to go to college, my parents didn't have the money to do that.

So nevertheless, Saint Phillips was here, I applied, I was accepted.

I had a great time here at Saint Phillips.

I think I sought, and that's the best way for me to describe my experience at Saint Phillips.

I do remember, my science classes with Doctor Bird.

Not only did we go around and we looked through the various microscopes and identify me by and stuff like that, but it was a competition.

And then you had the interest of your teachers.

You could knock on a door if you had an issue or a question.

I remember talking to the counselors here and comparing what ours did.

I need to take that were transferable for Saint Phillips to move me to that next level to UAW.

I was equipped, I was ready to go and take that next step, to move on to get my Bachelor of Science in nursing.

I did nursing for like 16 years.

I had a transition in life.

I was a single parent.

I had two kids.

I decided I wanted to go in LA, but the funny part of that at that time there was also the huxtables on TV.

Mr.

Wilson, are you aware that in the past 18 months and there was Claire, who was a lawyer, a mother who ran that household, and it was like, well, look at her.

And there I was.

I applied to law school, finished with, law school in 1991, and we did family law, criminal law, probate, real estate.

It was just a very active general law practice.

And again, located on the east side off of Hackberry Street, because you want to give back and serve the members of your community.

And then from there, I received an opportunity, through the city of San Antonio to serve as a municipal court judge and magistrate.

And I started that in 2007.

So I did that about three years and then applied once again when the opportunity came around.

And I was appointed to serve as a full time municipal court judge and magistrate for the City of San Antonio.

Municipal court also handles juvenile cases.

And unfortunately, we still have young people in the community that need help.

So one of the first things I would do, because I don't, you know, you have some latitude in your punishment list and say, you know what?

Here's what you're going to do.

I'm going to order you to go to one of the community colleges.

I tell them I sent off my story about Saint Phillips.

I need you to talk to a counselor about what your goals and aspirations are, and I can almost guarantee you that there is a program out there that will help you better your life.

Because, I mean, whether you want to be a plumber, whether you want to be a nurse, a chef in the health profession, there is something there for you to do.

Each of the Alamo colleges is very unique.

So if you were to look at Saint Philip's College, one, it honors both the HBCU or historically black college and university status.

And then Saint Phillips is also the only HBCU and Hispanic serving institution within the United States honoring its legacy and history, and then also its evolution to the community that it serves.

By 1960, San Antonio College had moved to its current site on San Pedro Avenue, across from San Pedro Park.

By 1966, SAC establishes KCI and the first college radio station in Texas.

The station helped launch the careers of many notable radio and television personalities so it could become a comprehensive community college by expanding offerings in occupational and technical courses.

In particular, the nursing program and other programs that provided individuals with an opportunity to earn that particular certificate or associate's degree and then go directly to employment.

March April of the year, we would drive in a truck all the way to to California on the migrant trail.

And as the crops ripen, we would just move northward.

We would be there from April until September, late September, and then return to San Antonio.

It was hard to go to a new school and new friends.

Some places we were not accepted readily.

So somehow I learned how to read.

My mother is the one that valued education.

She would always say, you're going to college.

And to proceed, I at Harland Dale graduated in 1959, and that was the last year we went to California to to harvest the crops and came back in August, came back early because I was starting at San Antonio College.

The tuition at the time that I recall, it was $50 a semester.

Now what you a grad school and the inner city graduated from high school.

And then I got a I was, a dental assistant for the summer.

And I went to sac to get my certification.

This is a picture of me around the time that I would to SAC and that I was working, but it was, at a time where I was really enjoying life and meeting people.

And I happened to meet my dad.

When I finished my two years, initial two years at SAC, I joined the military and they put me into the medical lab technician, and that was just right along my science direction.

And that's how I ended up in the health, career.

Situation.

At that time, I didn't know that I wanted to be a dentist.

I just wanted to go into some type of a profession.

I was a nontraditional, wife because I was the breadwinner.

And so our family and friends would give us a hard time.

You know, they would just say, you know, when are you going?

When is he going to finish school?

We lived off of the income that she had.

The money that I earned from the job that I had at the hospital was for the tuition.

At the time I did dental research, I participated with the oral physiology laboratory.

And I'm very proud of this achievement that I did that we that I helped.

We helped develop the first Ingestible dental office for the astronaut program.

You can't brush and empty out your mouth at that time.

It's not possible at zero gravity.

So we developed an ingestible toothpaste that they could brush their teeth and then just swallow the toothpaste.

He finished, dental school, and, I decided that I would get a real estate license because I didn't know how.

We didn't know how the practice was going to go.

If we were, he was going to have 1 or 2 patients or more.

So I decided to get a, real estate license, and I went back to get courses at SAC.

Gloria was very important in the building up of the practice, and we did very well, very well.

Became a the president of the local dental society in San Antonio.

I'm very proud of that achievement.

And then I was nominated to the Dental State Board by Ann Richards.

And here this migrant worker was going throughout the country to dental schools to do licensing examinations for the graduating dental students.

Never in my wildest dreams that I would think that would be achievable.

The three children we have, they all have degrees.

One has a PhD and the other one has a business.

The other one works at the university health system.

And so we're very proud of what we have contributed to their education by encouraging them.

In 1982, the district changed his name to Alamo Community College District, later shortening the name to Alamo Colleges District to give the growing district a more recognizable identity.

However, the college system still isn't serving the entire San Antonio community equally.

And this is in 1963.

We went downtown to see if we could see JFK, and it was packed, as you can see, and I found this poll that I could climb up on, and I climbed up on it so I could get a better view.

We grew up in the 60s with the civil rights movement, and so all of that background led us to keep on trying to, expose and stop the segregation, discrimination of minorities.

For many years, San Antonio Southside has limited access to higher education opportunities.

This predominantly Hispanic working class community faces barriers that make attending college close to home especially difficult.

That's part of the institutional bias.

In the 80s, that's when the movement really started saying, hey, accessibility.

We need facilities on the south side.

It was, Communities Organized for Public Service, otherwise known as Cops, the acronym for Cops, who had a hand.

There was a lot of opposition to setting the court in the south side for the simple reason.

It.

I guess the powers that be felt that no one would want to go to to a school located in the south side.

It took the whole.

Organization to have this.

College built, and cops drew the line and and they fought the battle.

I think the realization that education was very important in the skill development of our young people.

And where does that start?

It starts in secondary education The community's persistence pays off when Palo Alto College is approved by Alamo Community Colleges district trustees and chartered by the Texas Legislature in 1983.

Classes finally begin in September 1985, with 231 students meeting in high schools and military installations until the permanent campus is completed.

Making Palo Alto College the first institution of higher education on San Antonio's south side.

I think we need to look at the rich history that Palo Alto College has had several years after founding, being one of the fastest growing community colleges within the state, and then also it being, named in 2019 as a rising star by the Aspen Institute, meaning that it was one of the top ten community colleges in the United States right now, celebrating an enrollment of 15,000 students.

This is a trapezoid.

Campus, right?

So I'm so really thankful, that they did fight to get Palo Alto on our side of town.

I think that it was a major, major contributor to what success that we've seen on our side of town on South Side already.

So to be able to have a school that we can go to, that's right there, we see it growing up.

It's in our backyard.

I mean, it's just it's life changing for our community.

And for me.

I'm the first in my family to graduate from high school and get a high school diploma.

A lot of our community on the South Side, very low income minority families, you know, we come from we have poverty, financial burden, a lot of family struggles and obligation.

And so for my grandma, you know, my mom, even my great grandma, they didn't get to finish high school.

Some of them didn't even get to go to school because of the fact that they had a family obligation to help, to make ends meet.

So they always drove that message into our minds that if we had a higher education, we would have more opportunity and we wouldn't have to live the way that we always lived and that we could have better.

Growing up, I did really well in school.

I always pretty much had A's.

I, I was president of student council, got awards and everything like that.

We already knew that going.

If we went to college, we weren't going to be able to have help from our family.

I really wanted to go to New York at the time.

So I did apply to New York school.

I got a scholarship there, but it wasn't enough to cover, like, room and board.

UTSA, I did get a scholarship there, so I decided to go there.

And then I ended up getting pregnant with my daughter.

I was actually working at an eyelash, extension studio, and I was just in the front desk there.

I love seeing, like, the people go in and then coming out transformative and, like, feeling so good about themselves.

It kind of opened my eyes to, like, maybe this might be something that I would really be interested in doing.

I ended up getting an opportunity through them to go to work for their company in Oklahoma.

As an assistant manager, things didn't really work out, so I decided to come back home to San Antonio.

But when I came back home, I didn't.

I came back to really nothing.

I didn't have, my family didn't really have room for me here.

I was about to have a baby, and then I'm.

I don't have anything.

I was homeless.

I was looking for opportunity.

I was looking for work.

I was I had a car, luckily, so I would sleep in my car.

Sometimes I would work using my car, doing deliveries.

It was hard.

It.

Really.

Sorry.

I'm not trying to get emotional, but thinking about it, it was hard.

And there wasn't a lot of room for me to be emotional because I had to just do what I had to do to make sure that, you know, I could get my life together and in time for my child.

So I knew that I had to do something that was going to put me in a position to be able to be a good parent.

I started trying to look into like the assistance that was provided through the city.

So one program, was there transitional housing through Providence Place.

I went to live in their shelter for a few months before transitioning out, and to where they helped me get me and my daughter get our own apartment.

I told them, I want to go back to school for cosmetology, and I'm thinking that I'm going to have to go to a trade school.

And they said, you do you know that Palo Alto has a cosmetology program, and you can go through their program at community college, pricing, and you can get your certificate.

And if you take a few extra classes if you wanted to, you can also get your associate.

And I thought that was so cool.

Like, I can go back to school for something that I actually enjoy, and not only can I get my certificate, but I can get a degree.

It takes such a load off because financial burden is so hard.

It's a major factor in why a lot of us don't seize certain opportunities if we can't afford them.

Our students are really smart, they're driven and they're resilient.

The challenges are really outside of the classroom and off campus that they confront.

And so our Student Advocacy Center network is about providing basic needs, supports.

It's about connecting students to emergency aid for short term assistance.

I think the advocacy center definitely comes in where they're helping us with professional clothing, food pantries and the diaper banks.

It's right there on campus.

It's available to us as students for free.

It makes things so much easier to go through your journey through school.

I would say, really grateful to have my cosmetology license.

I do have my own clients that I tend to, usually I do like home visits or they might come to me just having that certificate.

It's definitely helped me to source some income.

Right now, I'm going back to pack for my bachelor's of applied Technology and Operations Management.

So I'm very grateful that they do offer these classes online.

One of the goals that I have is to become of my own, have my own business and become the manager of my business.

And so definitely taking all these business classes and getting this background information that I might not have gotten outside of education.

I think it's giving me a good foundation to be able to be knowledgeable for when I am ready to start my own business.

Let's do this.

So, Nyla, for now, she's doing really well.

She's really smart.

I'm sure she'll want to go to college, you know, regardless what career path she chooses after going to college.

I think as long as she's happy and she knows that in struggles like not to give up, to keep pushing so that we can go over obstacles and, you know, find a way to be successful and that she has support like, now I'm that role model for her that has been through this experience.

That's the most like the key thing that I could ask for the job.

Northwest Vista College's story begins in 1994 with a land donation from World Savings the next year.

Northwest Vista College opens with just 12 students in temporary facilities.

The college built its first permanent building in 1998.

And Northwest Vista College is celebrating 30 years as, an institution.

Started as part of the period of rapid growth on the northwest side of San Antonio and Bexar County.

And once again, a determination to be able to connect individuals with educational opportunity.

And that part of our community is really significant.

So if we look now, Northwest Vista College has 22,000 students, has graduated tens of thousands of individuals being able to provide them with certificates, associate's degrees and now a bachelor degree.

I think that is particularly significant and keeping up with that rate of growth.

During this shape.

Yeah.

So you'll pull up on the job and I'm an emergency medicine physician, coming back and kind of working with students who are interested in pursuing the same thing.

It's a very nice feeling.

I kind of see somebody where I was and being say like, hey, like, you know, this is what you want to do.

You can do it.

I have a big family.

I have two older brothers, a younger sister.

My parents were immigrants.

We really hadn't had any, like professionals in our family.

And this comes down to money.

And my parents are very practical people.

We work hard and they wanted to support me.

And I think the most realistic option for me was really to go to a community college.

I look back at it and there is a part of me because I went to health care.

So there's a lot of really high achievers.

I had friends going off to like Yale, all these Ivy League schools and stuff, and I'm like, man, I'm going to a community college.

But it's so interesting now because that decision almost has given me so much freedom in how I live my life right now, I live five minutes from my family, other five minutes from North Vista College.

Even now at the Alamo Colleges, the class size is so small.

I got so much personal attention and like character development and involvement in the campus that I think I would have been kind of lost in the bookshelves at a larger institution.

There were teachers, faculty and staff there everywhere that were really there for me, and it's not like an exaggeration statement, like it was professors who stayed after and talked to me about life.

It was professors who tried to get me into really great colleges with scholarships.

I mean, there are so many staff members who just took a personal interest and just cared and got to know me, and it really helped prepare me to basically, develop my social skills to be competitive.

I mean, you know, to get into medical school is is a really huge hurdle.

I mean, even the first time I got in, I applied, I got zero interviews, and that came down to more of like, a board score and I fixed that.

But like the social skills I went around the second time, I got a full ride to medical school.

When you finish medical school and residency and all this stuff, I mean, most people have acquired, you know, four years of college debt.

Some people get master's, and then you go to medical school and then by the time you're off, accumulate that much shit.

I have friends who owe close to half $1 million.

I think college is expensive.

I think cost of living is expensive.

And I have so much freedom now on this back side of my life compared to some of my peers.

Just from a simple decision I made very early on.

And I was going to the Alamo colleges, and I think even now with things like Alamo Promise and all these other ways of having affordable education, honest, that's really good.

You can have the same outcomes as somebody who makes it to an Ivy League, like no one asks those questions.

Once you become a physician, like when someone's sick and they're dying, you know, all that matters is that you're good at your job breathing.

When a community invests in you, you in turn have that connection to it, you know?

And that's why, you know, any time the Alamo colleges need help from me, like I always make time because they are so instrumental for me to having the freedom and life I live now.

And I think it's important to give back.

In 1995, Alamo Colleges district launches its dual credit program, offering college classes to high school students.

The wonderful thing about that is that they can earn their associate's degree at the same time that they earn their high school diploma.

In many cases, our students actually graduate probably a week or two before with their college degree, before they receive their high school diploma, and currently supports 22,000 students enrolled in high school programs, good credit courses, early college high schools, what we call the Alamo Academies or career focused P-Tech academies.

Northeast Lakeview College opens in 1996 as a small extension center of Saint Philip's College to meet the rising educational demand in northeast San Antonio.

After voters approve a major bond in 2005.

The colleges officially established in 2007, with a new campus opening in 2008.

Northeast Lakeview College achieves full accreditation in 2017.

I think the history of the Alamo colleges has been one of both connecting individuals to education that need that access.

That's convenient, whether that is on the south side, West side, or North side.

Northeast Lakeview also is distinct in being able to provide access to that part of our community, and also to what's referred to as a metro.

Com communities, right.

Universal City and Schertz and Selma, all of those smaller communities that also wanted and needed access to be able to connect.

And so Northeast Lakeview College also has a rich and distinct history as an institution and is now also expanding, with the Alamo and to New Braunfels as in developing a campus there.

We're thankful that is part of our history.

We also support, both active duty veterans and military affiliated students and learners.

And Northeast Lakeview College plays a distinct role in that, being close to Randolph Air Force Base.

And so we celebrate and honor that history, and we look forward to continuing that, to move that forward.

There's not many things in this world that I think that, man, I was good at that.

And, tuba was one of those things.

From literally my very first note, I remember my middle school teacher, he handed me this big old honking piece of metal.

I was like, play that.

And I remember the note was like, very clear, very open, very big, very, very just tuba.

I've seen, Longhorns before.

Obviously A&M has got killer bands, you know, just so I wanted to go to college and do that.

That was, that was, a goal of mine that was very active in the, marching band.

I was a section leader.

We were unpacking stuff from the, you know, the season before getting all out of storage and getting it ready for the season.

It was the last day of summer.

The next day, we're going to start band camp up full fledged.

And, it was hot.

So we were like, well, let's go to the river.

You know, we finish like around 4:00.

So like, let's go to the river and, and Braunfels.

I was very familiar with the river.

I knew I could and couldn't dive.

I dove in, like I always did.

I remember trying to move, remember trying to up upright myself, trying to stand up, trying to figure out what happened.

It was like, oh, I hit something, apparent, obviously.

And then I could not move.

The last thing I remember was breathing in water and blacking out, and that was it.

Then I woke up in the ICU two weeks later.

Basically, they told me that, his level of spinal cord injury, all he would be able to do was to move his eyes.

He would never be able to breathe, speak or eat on his own.

I gotta have people help me eat, drink.

Only brush my teeth or brush my hair.

Do you like it?

No.

Good enough?

Yeah, yeah.

He was very upset, very distraught.

He was 17.

Every day there was a new problem to solve.

Every day there was, Oh, yeah.

Now, now we got to change my treat for the first time.

And.

Oh, now we got to figure out how to get me to breathe on my own again.

For the first time.

It was constant.

Process and everything I, I have always told him in life, there's always challenges.

You can either be the victim or be the conqueror, and you choose what you want to do.

And education is a big key to that.

And I would tell him, you need to see you see how hard your dad works.

But you all have never been without.

But he's had to work twice as hard if he would have gotten an education or a college degree.

Either him or I, we would be a lot better.

And these are things that you need to think about in your future.

I had had previous encounters with Alamo colleges and started a career in cybersecurity, and I told him, look into cybersecurity.

Whatever is going through the air is picking it up and showing me here.

Cybersecurity is like protecting networks.

We're the cops of the internet.

Once I'm hooked up to that computer, then I can.

I'm very, very independent.

I can do all kinds of things on my own.

That's why I love it so much.

You already started learning video and how to play video game.

I use a controller with different inputs that I can interact with.

Primarily there are three holes that you can slip and puff into, and then there's a chain switch that I can do with my chain.

Northeast Lakeview is so accessible to me.

At the time, it was 15 minutes away from my house in New Braunfels.

All my professors that I've had have always been very welcoming, really helped me get back into socializing because I was something else, had stepped away from the max and I was.

I didn't know how to socialize because people typically see a wheelchair or see me and they're like, whoa, whoa, what's this?

I don't know, how do I handle this?

Can they handle with with gloves?

And there were even professors out there, professors and people that would, took off those gloves and treated me like a normal suit.

And, you know, they would make me feel normal again, which was very nice.

I want to live life.

I feel like a lot of people live life.

They don't actually ever live life.

I think that cyber security not only would give me the means to do that, with funding, you know, obviously getting those nice paying jobs will help me do what I want because everything that I do isn't exactly easy and isn't always cheap.

You will need a certain income bracket in order to sustain yourself.

You cannot depend on government assistance for the rest of your life.

You have to be able to facilitate a job that will provide you what you need to get on with your life as a normal person.

Northeast like we, just has a place in my heart.

It's what's so nice.

I liked it a lot.

I got my associate's degree in cyber security and information assurance.

Now I'm doing my degree in cybersecurity, my bachelor's degree in cybersecurity at Texas A&M San Antonio.

Mom and dad have put a lot of work into me.

I guess as any parent should.

And I want to eventually be able to take care of them and provide for them.

I would like to see dad not have to wake up at 4:00 every day, not wanting to wake up when he has to go to work.

I would like my mom to also be able to do that because she's always, oh, I want to do this to the house, or I want to do that to my truck.

In this I would like to be on don't go do it.

You know, that'd be really nice.

In 2020, the Covid 19 pandemic brings the world to a halt, and the Alamo Colleges district is forced to pivot overnight.

That history is really a realization of wanting to support our students and learners and ensuring they connected, and that was virtually over a period of two weeks to move from on site to online courses and being able also to provide wraparound support services.

Our advocacy centers went from providing food aid on campus to providing mobile food pantries for drive thru delivery.

So I think that that's a realization not only underscores the tenacity of our students and learners, but the tenacity and the innovation of faculty and staff within the Alamo colleges and the support of our community.

Let me get your reaction to, oh yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, Oh, so this this is a picture, right, of childhood picture of myself, my parents themselves, through their lived experience, as migrant farm workers, had their own moonshot, which was to be able to move into the American middle class as a result of a college credential and hard work.

When I go and do classroom visits, what I talk about is to our students in particular, and those students that are first generation college students is I tell them, I am not you.

I am your children.

I am your son or daughter.

My dad connected, to higher education through the GI Bill.

My mother was a head start paraprofessional and was able to get her college degree as a working adult.

And, I say, if not for their college degrees, I would not be here.

So I would have to say the why for myself and for many of my colleagues is just witnessing firsthand the transformational power of education.

One of the best days of the year are college graduations, right?

Of being able for students to come to shake their hands, congratulate them that they've earned a college degree.

And then what is even more emotional and transformational is they are scanning the crowd, looking for their children, looking for their spouse, looking for their family members, holding up their hands, raised fists just with the biggest, broadest smile and sense of personal satisfaction that motivates me.

And I know that that motivates us within the Alamo colleges.

And the kind of beginning in 2019, Alamo Colleges do the Alamo Promise program and in partnership with local government, community organizations and independent school districts, offers tuition free education at one of its five colleges to students pursuing an associate degree, certificate transfer courses or workforce training.

What that Alamo Promise does is it provides now any graduating high school senior from Bexar County, whether they attend a public high school, parochial, private, or have their GED, are able to enroll at any one of our five colleges for up to three years at no cost.

We pay their tuition, their fees.

We support them for their instructional materials or books.

I'm proud to say if when we look at two things, one is we look at the college going rate now in Bexar County, it has moved from 45% in 2018 to 55% in 2025.

We can also look at our enrollment rate, in particular for freshmen.

That is increased significantly.

And we attribute that also to Alamo Promise being at scale in Bexar County.

And the other thing is we can look at the, poverty rate within Bexar County and that that has also decreased at a much higher rate than any other urban county within the state of Texas.

Is that the only reason?

No.

But is it that is that a significant factor for the decrease in poverty?

I would say that it is.

Consider this for every $1 students spend on their Alamo Colleges district, education, they gained $7 in lifetime earnings for every dollar taxpayers invest in the district, they gained $3.70 and added tax revenue and public sector savings.

And for every dollar society invests, $22.40 is added in state revenue and social savings.

The return on investment for a student once they've earned a credential from us is really, really impactful.

The other part is that individual then with those increased earnings moves from unbanked to banked moves from a renter to a homeowner, they have the potential now to start their own business.

So that's more of what we would call a spend in the community that creates more economic opportunities for the and to graduate for their family.

That is more money that that individual is going to earn.

That's more money they're going to spend.

And then there's an economic multiplier effect as part of that.

But this is a substantial it's huge a substantial bond.

So it.

Looks like it is going to.

Pass.

When we talk about getting to the root of the problem this is it.

On May 3rd, 2025, Bexar County voters approve a $987 million bond, which is expected to have a transformative impact on the district.

One of the exciting parts, about the bond is that we're going to create, four new locations in Bexar County.

Three of those are at, economic sector campuses where employers in that particular area are concentrated.

So we will establish the School of Nursing from San Antonio College will be located in the South Texas Medical Center area.

Being able to provide access to, for students pursuing fields in nursing or health professions, to clinical sites will also be able to provide, convenient access to education and training for employees in that area.

We're going to be able to do the same thing in Port San Antonio, which will house the school of emerging Technologies from Northwest Vista College to provide access to our students, to those employment opportunities.

Also internship opportunities, or for up to 20,000 employees for training.

We're going to provide a third additional site at Brooks focused on manufacturing and the Toyota T10 program.

We're going to key in in particular in those three industries to employment opportunities and to employers in those regions, in health care, in IT and in manufacturing, which are economic drivers that the community has invested in that employers said that there was a need for credentialed talent.

As a testament to its dedication to student success.

Alamo Colleges district receives the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award in 2018 and again in 2024, making it the only community college district in the nation to win the award twice.

Receiving the Malcolm Baldrige Award two times is a recognition that we are a high performing organization, not only within our community, not only within higher education, but within the United States in 2020.

Alamo colleges is named part of the Achieving the Dream Network Earning Leader College of Distinction status for student outcomes and narrowing equity gaps in 2021, San Antonio College is named the top community college in the nation.

In 2024, Alamo Colleges District receives the Great Place to Work certification based on employee feedback, and in 2025, Northwest Vista College is named as a finalist for the prestigious Aspen Prize for Community College Excellence by the Aspen Institute for the second consecutive year.

This places Northwest Vista College in the top 1% of community colleges in the United States.

I think the history of the Alamo colleges is a realization that individuals have dreams, and individuals have the ability to achieve those dreams, whether it's Saint Philip's College, right, starting as a school for the daughters of freed slaves.

I am truly grateful that San Antonio has realized the jewel and the need for Saint Philip's College and that they're pouring into it, and we begin with that dream of Saint Artemisia Dei.

It is still very much alive and well here today, and I'm part of that legacy that I am so very grateful that it was here.

Whether it's looking at first generation immigrants coming to the United States and settling, as a result of the Mexican Revolution within the United States and studying at San Antonio College.

All of the players and and our family, their preparation for their lives and their careers.

I owe it to the educational journey that Gloria and I went through.

And it all started at SAC.

Whether it is a single parent wanting to enroll at any one of our five colleges.

It's not just me and, my, it's my success, but it's not.

I'm not the only one who contributed to it.

You know, Pac has contributed to it.

My family, you know, my my God and everything.

And so I'm just very grateful and very humbled to be here.

Or individuals that didn't have access to an institution in different parts of our community.

The Alamo colleges really showed me that education is the path to freedom, and I really get to live a great free life today.

Thank you, Alamo Colleges.

You guys have been good to me.

I mean, I'm really grateful for it.

Our history is one of connecting individuals to opportunity and realizing that every individual has promise.

This is an option for people with disabilities, you know, physical disabilities.

And then they gave me the opportunity to be able to strengthen my brain again.

And it's really there's so much opportunity.

Alamo is the future of Bexar.

County and South Texas because it is the foundation of higher education.

Alamo students go on to UTSA and to Texas A&M, San Antonio, and into the many privates and other institutions within our area.

And those students are well prepared at Alamo Colleges.

They're going forth getting their degrees and being successful.

In addition to that.

Alamo is a workforce driver, working with our.

Workforce partners to.

Ensure that students are getting the certificates and skill sets that they.

Need to be successful.

Within their roles.

We're doing that with the main goal of ending poverty through education and training.

Alamo colleges has impacted my life in the sense of loving what I do as a trustee.

At every graduation.

When we look into the students eyes, when they receive their diplomas, but more importantly, when you look into their parents and their families eyes and their cheers and their tears, that is so gratifying.

Alamo colleges has impacted my life in numerous ways.

I was a student of Palo Alto College.

I became a faculty member at Palo Alto College, and now I have the blessing of serving as a trustee for Alamo Colleges, where I help change lives myself.

I give back.

So it means everything to me.

Alamo College District has impacted my life because over the years, I've been dedicated to putting in place the education that allows our city to grow, grow, and serve its people.

And the Alamo College District has done that impressively.

It didn't used to be one of the better colleges in America.

Now it is the best in the country.

Alamo colleges has impacted my career by giving me very important conversations with their students and faculty.

Through those conversations, I'm able to hear real life challenges as well as opportunities of hope that are coming through the students and the faculty.

They've helped guide the kind of policy that Bexar County has implemented to help give people a hand up in conjunction with the Alamo colleges.

And so whether it's my father, who is a graduate of San Antonio College or my mother, who is one of the chairs of the largest department in the Alamo College district, I've been greatly enriched in those conversations about how we as a community move forward.

You know, John F Kennedy said, a rising tide lifts all boats.

And so it has happened with all of the Alamo colleges, including San Antonio College, which was named the number one community college in America, right here in San Antonio.

That affordability, that state of the art commitment to excellence is what makes Alamo Colleges so important to the future of all of our young people and those wanting a better life.

ACD is so important to our community because we need to ensure that we have a strong pipeline of talent into the career fields that are going to ensure.

Our city as economically competitive as possible.

I've got my own special story with ACD.

I actually took a couple of summer classes at Palo Alto during college.

So I know it's a stopping point for for so many in our community.

And I am proud to support it.

I see Alamo Colleges as important to the future representing Antonio and South Texas because they truly are the engine of economic mobility.

By preparing a skilled workforce that will adapt, innovate and lead when talent dry, cities thrive.

And the Alamo colleges ensures that San Antonio remains a place where businesses invest, families grow and opportunity expand for generations to come.