Scorpion Pathways lead BISD high school freshmen on path to success

Hundreds of BISD students attended Texas Southmost College’s Scorpion Pathways to Success events Sept. 23-25 at TSC’s Jacob Brown Auditorium. From left center to right center, TSC President Jesús Roberto Rodríguez, TSC Board of Trustees Chairwoman Adela G. Garza and TSC Director of Special Instructional Projects Prisci Roca Tipton.

High school freshmen from high schools throughout Brownsville were invited to meet with Texas Southmost College faculty and staff to familiarize themselves with all the career opportunities available to them close to home during TSC’s Scorpion Pathways to Success event.

BISD students packed the Jacob Brown Auditorium to learn more about career opportunities available to them at TSC that are close to home.

“It’s a great opportunity to have TSC reach out to our high schools and make sure ninth graders know about the different (career pathways) offered,” said Jessica Cantu, a college readiness counselor at Pace Early College High School. “Our community has TSC to support them in their high school classes which can later feed into classes at TSC.”

During the three-day event held Sept. 23-25 at TSC’s Jacob Brown Auditorium, freshmen were provided the opportunity to explore various educational programs at TSC and learn about the potential courses they could enroll in to further their educational careers.

“The experience today was really different compared to other events we’ve been to,” said Jasmine Rocha, a freshman at Lopez ECHS. “I really like it because there’s a lot of opportunities I can see here. I’m getting closer to finding out what I would really like to study.”

Freshmen from nine Brownsville high schools attended Scorpion Pathways to Success: Pace ECHS, Lopez ECHS, Rivera ECHS, Brownsville ECHS, Hanna ECHS, Veterans Memorial ECHS, Porter ECHS, Brownsville Learning Academy and Lincoln Park High School.

“We were very excited because when we told our students we were coming to TSC, hands went up and asked about TSC,” said Samantha Contreras, an Algebra I teacher at Pace. “Students that hardly ever speak up in class, I’m seeing them flourish right now. They’re talking to everyone, they’re so excited showing what they’ve collected from the different tables and about what they’ve learned from the different programs.”

“Events like this show that TSC is so invested in the community and in its future by reaching out to students in the ninth grade,” said Dr. Jamie Tucker, TSC Dean of Health Professions. “We’re allowing them to take those additional years to really understand what it is they’re going to need in order to come into our programs and be successful.”