San Benito CISD’s Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP) Program partnered with the University of Texas Pan American in Edinburg to take part in this year’s Hispanic Engineering, Science & Technology (HESTEC) event.
The event focuses on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
Ida Garcia, who oversees the district’s GEARUP Program, explained, “Participants were exposed to career awareness activities. Those in attendance had the opportunity to meet the guest speaker, Phillipe Cousteau, grandson of Jacques Cousteau.”
Garcia said that mother-daughter teams from San Benito participated in Latina Day, an event dedicated to celebrating and promoting women in fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The participants heard inspiring stories of prominent, successful women in careers and job fields.
The district sent 25 staff members to take part in Educator Day, an event with mini-conferences, workshops, corporate keynote speakers and a variety of technical and scientific/research speakers.
Each year, the university opens its doors to tens of thousands of students and educators from across the region in an effort to promote education and careers in the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. Since its inception in 2002, more than 30,000 students and 7,500 teachers have participated in the weeklong conference.
Dell Laptop Winner
San Benito Veterans Memorial Academy freshman Venessa Monjaraz, right, smiles as her mother, San Juanita Perez, shows off her prize, a Dell Laptop computer, which she won at the University of Texas Pan American HESTEC event. Over 40 mother-daughter teams from the VMA campus attended the Latina Day event.
