Texas Southmost College hosted an unveiling ceremony on Friday morning for the build-out of four new training facilities at the ITEC Center, which will train and educate people for jobs and careers on welding, construction trades, criminal justice, industrial mechanics and maintenance technology.
TSC President Jesus Roberto Rodriguez said the facilities will impact the community in the most positive way.
“We continue to move Texas Southmost College forward with purpose and direction and I think we are truly transforming our institution to the regional workforce destination place,” he said.
Attendees for the ceremony included Brownsville Mayor Trey Mendez, TSC Board of Trustees Chairwoman Adela G. Garza and Executive Director of Cameron County Workforce Pat Hobbs.
During his speech, Mendez said the growth of TSC is something the Board has envisioned for many years. Mendez was elected for the TSC Board of Trustees in 2010 and continued until 2019 when he became mayor.
“It is great to see what it has become, because this is not only what we envisioned but it is actually so much more than what we envisioned,” he said.
“I never thought we would get to this point that we’d be the fastest growing community college in the State, that we would be setting all-time high enrollment every semester and I still say we because even though I’ve been gone for a year and a half I still feel like part of this family.”
Garza said she remembers how years ago in the midst of the separation of University of Texas at Brownsville and TSC, leaders of the community came together to support TSC, including Mendez. She said nothing then could have told her the college was going to come to be this great.
“Exciting things are happening and a lot has to do with the TSC family. Every time I speak to staff or faculty I say ‘we are a family’ and this is the way we work,” she said.
“TSC is a family and we work together, all faculty and staff have to do is ask, and it gets to the board, and we give them a hard time, but they get it because we know that they’d never ask for more than they need.”
During one of the tours after the ribbon-cuttings, Hobbs said the impact from the facilities will be very high because trade workers are in demand.
“Our trade workforce, our construction workforce is weak right now. We have a lot of industry that’s coming to the Port, we heard today about the ship building … all of those things are going on and we don’t have a workforce to supply those kinds of industries,” he said.
“So, these jobs: the weldings, the construction, the manufacturing, robotics and those type of things are exactly what we need the workforce to be developed in.”
