ENCORE Annual Conference 2010
by Oscar Garza
Liftoff in T minus…extremely soon! The ENCORE Annual Conference is scheduled to launch May 7th and 8th 2010 at the University of Texas-Pan American’s College of Science and Engineering. And what a launch it will be with the first couple of sessions dealing with air and space engineering. The first will be UTPA alumnus Reynaldo Rios and his presentation, “My journey from UTPA to the new Boeing 787 Manufacturing Plant.” Students will see how someone with a similar background as themselves is able to succeed in a highly competitive global market and society. Other outreach groups and ENCORE sub-grantees that will be contributing to the conference include the Valley Outreach Center, State Farm Insurance, Boeing, AT&T Foundation, Wells Fargo Bank, The Ford Motor Company, Llano Grande, Exxon Mobil Foundation, Renaissance Hospital, ACT, Texas Guaranteed Loan Corporation, VAMOS, LUPE, HIPPY RGV, Valley Interfaith and the South Texas Promotoras Association. Ernesto Villarreal, ENCORE Program Director stated, “We are so excited to say that the First ENCORE Annual Conference is bringing together so many local Hispanic role models for our students and parents. We are talking about engineers, scientists and business professionals that attended Valley schools, graduated from UTPA and now are working with global companies and enjoying a successful professional career all over the country.”
Following the Boeing morning session, the students will have NASA mentors pushing the limits even higher. The NASA mentors will discuss about being college-ready and NASA student internships that can make a major difference in a student’s life. According to NASA.gov, “These mentor-guided internships provide hands-on, real-life, career-related experiences that challenge, inspire, and provide practical application that complements and expands upon students' academic education.” NASA officials will also discuss how far a person can make it with hard work, education and dedication with the presentation, "From working in the Migrant Fields to NASA."
As always, ENCORE does not exclusively deal with science and engineering fields, but also with business readiness. With that in mind, the State Farm Insurance Company will speak on the importance of a college education in the banking and insurance sectors. Students will see how effective college skills, such as teamwork, foresight, math and writing skills, translate to success in life. Those sessions and many more from the other outreach groups can be expected as the ENCORE Annual Conference repertoire of inspiration.
The conference wouldn’t be complete without the parent side of it too. The second day is proclaimed Parent Day, in order to show the importance of parental involvement in school success and college readiness for students. ENCORE understands the diversity of our community -so there will be sessions in English and Spanish in order to reach a greater number of parents. Llano Grande, an educational outreach center based in Edcouch-Elsa, which has a proven track record of sending students to Ivy League Schools, will start the day with “Financing your Education: Take Advantage of FREE Money,” and “Lessons Learned: A Parent Reflection about College.” These specialty designed sessions, including many more, will give practical tools to parents helping their children succeed in the high school to college transitional phase. This conference will be a great opportunity for parents to take advantage of all the empowering knowledge offered.
The conference will conclude with an all-out robotic competition where the students’ hard work will be put to the test for everyone to witness. To conclude the excitement, the ENCORE CAMP Graduation Ceremony will show everybody how proud we are of our Rio Grande Valley college-ready students and how we are all developing a new college-going culture. Join us and be empowered by knowledge, get ready, get college, get ENCORE!
For more information on the ENCORE Annual Conference 2010, please contact Ernesto Villarreal via email at evillarreal@tvcof.org or (956) 618-2828.
