This year’s HESTEC celebration, which is usually observed the first week of October, has been postponed to a later date to try and expand the event, a university official said.
“We’re trying to incorporate more of the university; we want to make it more universitywide,” said Patrick Gonzales, UTRGV’s associate vice president for University Marketing and Communications. “Obviously, we want to do more in Brownsville as well and another thing we’re looking at, is actually making it, not only just the fall event, but to incorporate some events in the spring.”
“The Hispanic Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) Week is a nationally recognized model for promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers to students of all ages,” according to the UTRGV website.
Asked when HESTEC will take place, Gonzales replied, “Sometime this fall. We’re looking at a couple of dates next month and in December.”
UTRGV Leadership and Mentoring emailed student organizations on Sept. 17 stating it will be building on past accomplishments to make HESTEC more interactive for participating students.
“The goal, as always, is to spark an interest in the STEM fields and through HESTEC, give students the opportunity to begin their educational journey right here at UTRGV,” the email states.
The Rider emailed the College of Engineering and Computer Science administrators Constantine Tarawneh, associate dean for Research and Graduate Programs, and Lisa Smith, assistant dean for administration.
Tarawneh and Smith replied via email with the same statement, “The College of Engineering and Computer Science is looking forward to partnering with Ms. Karen Dorado, [UTRGV director of special programs for University Marketing and Communications] on the future HESTEC programs, which is key to our success.”
Leonel Villafranca, a mechanical engineering senior, said he does not know if it would be better to postpone HESTEC, but it would not hurt.
“I mean, from the little involvement that I’ve had with it, with the student organizations, it might be good because we have more time to organize and prepare for it,” Villafranca said. “I’m not involved anymore, so, I don’t know what the organizations are thinking of right now. I know before, it used to be, like, too early during the semester and, like, the committees were barely getting acquainted with each other. So, there wasn’t much organization.”
