It's a great honor to serve as CEO of the Rio-South Texas Education & Community Development Foundation. The foundation originated back in 1974. It was founded as a higher education student loan secondary market authority.
For over 45 years, RSTEF served the community by helping hundreds and thousands of students and their families achieve the dream of a higher education by providing billions of dollars in low-cost student loans.
And what I mean by billions of dollars… the foundation was a federal program back then and the foundation took it upon itself to discount the interest rates that the federal government was charging. So, some of those discounts were as deep back then as 3% of the interest rate that the government was charging.
So, the foundation has always given back to the community, funding millions of dollars in scholarships for over 45 years. At one point, their organization served over 45% of the students attending higher education in Rio-South Texas.
In May of 2019, the authority transitioned into the Rio-South Texas Education and Community Development Foundation. I will call it RSTEF for short, because it is a mouthful. And it adopted a new mission. The mission is to ensure residents acquire skills and knowledge and have access to economic opportunities to enable them to pursue meaningful careers and live prosperous lives in Rio-South Texas.
The mission is a unified mission with a company called COSTEP, which is the Council for South Texas Economic Progress. I have the privilege of serving as CEO for both organizations at this time. Both organizations have been working together since 1974 to help elevate the education of residents in Rio-South Texas. RSTEF is focused on post-secondary education and workforce development and serves a seven county region that we call Rio-South Texas.
The foundation provides financial support to other 501(c)(3) not for profits, whose programs result in increased skilled employment and educational attainment for area residents. Since 2019 RSTEF has awarded $9.4 million to programs across Rio-South Texas (applause). That $9.4 million has been leveraged up to $18.8 million by matching funds. So far, 26 programs have been funded, and some of those programs have been funded for multi years. The funds have been awarded to institutions such as UTRGV, Texas A&M University System, both in McAllen and in Laredo, Laredo College, South Texas College, TSTC, Texas Southmost College, Valley Grande Institute, and the Imaginarium of South Texas. Just this year, the awards total $2.9 million, and with the match, the impact to Rio-South Texas is $5.8 million.
I am going to read off a small list of programs that have been funded. So, an advanced industrial robotics program, several credit recovery programs and by credit recovery we mean students that, for whatever reason, had lost their funding and had to drop out, and for whatever family reasons were not able to continue their education and were missing anywhere between nine and 12 credit hours to graduate. And so those are the kind of students we're focused on getting back and trying to get them to earn their certificate and continue their higher education.
Also, biomedical equipment grants, career pathways to healthcare, STEM tutor programs, healthcare apprenticeship programs, teacher training pathways, registered nurse programs, medical career training and apprenticeships, CTE pipeline scholarships, career pathways and supporting services and various endowments to graduate and professional students, computer engineering, construction science, a banking academy and regular scholarship funds.
Again, I want to thank each and every one of you that is representing an institution here of higher education and other programs that help the residents of Rio-South Texas in their upward mobility and getting the skills needed so that they can fill the jobs that are on demand in this region.
Thanks to each and every one of you that is here tonight. I have the privilege of serving in various leadership groups throughout the region, and advisory groups. And I like to see what's happening with the region. It is coming together and trying to meet those in-demand occupations that are out there. One of the things that RSTEF stands for, of course, is trying to fill those positions, those employment areas that have gaps. So, we're looking at positions that… primarily with the first draft that we did… we looked at positions where there were 50 or more positions available a year that actually paid about $20 an hour, which is roughly about $40,000 a year. We didn't want to fund any programs that were that were not in demand here in the region.
The other thing that the board instructed us to do is also create or fund programs that were innovative. And what I mean by innovative is high tech and trying to attract new industries to the region. What we want to do is avoid that brain drain, to try to keep local residents from here, that get educated here, keep them here, have them have good jobs, good paying jobs, where they can make a good living and raise their families here in the Valley.
I'm not from the Valley. I moved here in 1986, to go to college here, and I stayed. I loved it here. I've raised my family here. So, it's a great place to live, a great place to get an education. And I thank each and every one of your organizations for what you do for the residents of Rio-South Texas. Thanks again for coming here, and we hope to see you next year. Remember, applications start July 1 and go through August 31. We’re looking forward to 2026 already. Thank you.
Editor’s Note: The above commentary was provided by Adam Gonzalez, CEO of Rio-South Texas Education & Community Development Foundation at the group’s 2025 Annual Gala. The event was held at the Radisson McAllen Airport Hotel. The groups RSTEF funded this year were: VAMOS, VIDA, UTRGV, TSTC, TSC, Texas A&M Alumni Association, Teach for America RGV, Texas A&M University Foundation, South Texas College Foundation, Cameron County Education Initiative, Imaginarium of South Texas, and Region One Education Service Center.
