Dr.
Nora Garza, Laredo Community College Dean of Arts and Sciences, has just
returned from a summer fellowship with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
designed to improve educational opportunities for Hispanic students.
Dr.
Garza was among the 15 fellows selected from Hispanic Serving Institutions
throughout the nation for the program which is part of the White House
Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans.
Hispanic-Serving
Institutions are accredited and degree-granting institutions of higher education
with a full-time Hispanic student enrollment of 25 percent or more. In 2002,
USDA invested more than $34 million in educational programs targeting Hispanic
students and institutions.
Fellows were selected based on the compatibility of their research
interests with USDA mission areas and the value their experience would add to
their institution’s curriculum offerings for Hispanic students. According to a
statement from the USDA, topics included food security, forestry and watershed
management, agricultural science and marketing, and economic development
initiatives along the historically underserved southwest border of the U.S.
A
member of the LCC family since 1977 and Title V Director since 1999, Garza has
played a leadership role in obtaining federal funding for Laredo Community
College which significantly improves opportunities for Hispanic students. In
particular, Garza led a grant writing team that obtained funding for the
college’s recently constructed Dr. Joaquin G. Cigarroa, Jr., Science
Laboratory Building.
Program
fellows represented the states of California, Colorado, Illinois, New Mexico,
Texas and Puerto Rico.
“The White House and USDA recognize that currently only 10 percent of Hispanics graduate from four-year colleges and universities,” Garza said. “Our role as a community college is especially critical, as a nurturing foundation, for South Texas students to launch careers in math, science, engineering, the arts and humanities, and of course, in professions that support the U.S. Department of Agriculture,” she added.
For more information, contact Dr. Garza by calling 721-5823 or by e-mail at nrgarza@laredo.edu.
Dr. Nora Garza (seated, second from right), Dean of Arts and Sciences at Laredo Community College, is pictured with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 2003 class of Hispanic-Serving Institutions Fellows and Deputy Agriculture Secretary Jim Moseley, following his remarks and official welcoming at USDA on July 10.
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