WASHINGTON, D.C. – Rep. Henry Cuellar, D-Texas, announced over $3.7 million has been awarded to the University of Texas at San Antonio from the Department of Education through the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program.

  • Establish funds for Latino-TALC
  • Create higher rate of Hispanic teachers
  • Programs for Hispanic students

UTSA’s Academy for Teachers Excellence, in partnership with Northwest Vista, will use these funds to establish the Latino-Teacher Academy Learning Community.

These funds will be distributed to UTSA over an expected five-year budget period in order to continue the expansion and enhancement of UTSA’s academic offerings, program quality, and institutional stability.

Specifically, the Latino-TALC project will provide teachers seeking to serve the Bexar County community with support while they navigate through a learning environment.

In addition, the project will address the need to increase the number of Hispanic teachers within the critical teaching areas of bilingual education, English as a second language, mathematics, and science.

The following five goals will also be addressed:

  1. Increase the number of Hispanic students prepared to enroll at NVC and UTSA as education majors
  2. Increase the number of Hispanic and underrepresented students graduating from NVC and transferring to UTSA majoring in a critical teaching area
  3. Increase the number of student support programs and make psychosocial and culturally relevant support initiatives available to Hispanic other underrepresented teacher candidates majoring in a critical teaching shortage areas.
  4. Create a community of learners composed of faculty, staff, and administrators from NVC, UTSA, and partner high schools to maintain a college-going culture and strengthen the teacher pipeline 
  5. Evaluate best practices to increase Hispanic teacher candidates’ college completion and teacher certification rates.

“Our accomplishments (Wednesday) ensure that universities do not miss out on this valuable population in research, partnerships, hiring, and that these important institutions have the funds they need to continue to succeed,” Cuellar said.