SAN MARCOS AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
State of Workforce & Higher Education summit prepares students for workforce
The State of Workforce & Higher Education conference at the San Marcos Conference Center last week brought together college and university leaders to discuss ways to prepare students to meet regional workforce trends. Cohosted by by the San Marcos Chamber and the Hays Caldwell Economic Development Partnership, the conference also served to announce the San Marcos Texas Community Foundation scholarship winners. San Marcos High School graduates Aubrey Clark, now attending Bayor, Benjamin Keller (Princeton) and Youssef Omar (Carnegie Mellon) each received a $1,000 scholarship from the San Marcos Texas Community Foundation.
“These scholarships represent more than financial support, they’re an investment in the future leaders of San Marcos,” said Thomas Curtis, President of the Foundation Board of Di- rectors. “We are honored to play a role in opening doors for these students, and we are equally excited about what’s ahead as we expand our programs and capacity.”
Guest speakers Russell Lowery-Hart, Chancellor of Austin Community College, and Texas State President Kelly Damphousse both discussed the Bats to Cats program which facilitates the transfer of ACC students to Texas State.
“He’s the River Bats. We’re the Bobcats, We created the Bats to Cats program as a big celebration,” said Damphousse. “We are smoothing the pathway for a student who is admissible to Texas State to be admitted to Texas State when they are also admitted to ACC. So they really don’t even have to transfer.”
Lowery-Hart said ACC has begun to see encouraging results from the transfer program. “It has already dramatically increased the number of students that are transferring to Texas State,” he said. “You can be proud of how we are integrating rather than competing with each other. … Our job is to provide you hope in our alignment and integration. And I think you can be proud of the partnership that Bats to Cats has created. It’s only going to grow in its importance.”
Lowery-Hart said this partnership with Texas State is part of ACC’s mission to adapt the role of higher education to create a broader appeal to high school students, many of whom are questioning the need for a college education.
“There’s lots of questions about whether the exploding costs of getting that degree is worth the job waiting on the other end,” Lowery- Hart said. “And we just need to be honest about that. I think higher education has to reimagine itself because of that. And the reason you should be worried about that is in Central Texas, for the first time in the 30 years, we’ve been measuring it, more students are not going into higher education than are going into higher education.”
According to Damphousse, Texas State will appeal to potential students with a range of new campus amenities, including extensive renovations to increase green spaces, continued focus on academic standards, graduation rates and research funding, as well as the increased visibility and resources which will result from joining the Pac 12 conference.
“It’s about preparing a place here at Texas State that people will love, Damphousse said.
“By 2050, 8.3 million people will live between Williamson County and Bexar County, and we’re right in the center of that,” Damphousse said. “This Metroplex will be bigger than DFW. This Metroplex will be bigger than the Houston metro area. And so we’re about to be in the middle of something remarkable.”
Guest speaker Mike Anderson, Provost, Texas State Technical College at New Braunfels Campus also focused on workforce training in the San Marcos area. For more on TSTC, see Friday’s issue of the Daily Record.
