Palo Alto College was one of 22 organizations statewide to receive “Performance Recognition” by the Quality Texas Foundation during an awards ceremony held in Dallas, June 23.
 
Palo Alto College was recognized by Quality Texas for continuing its Baldrige Award journey by submitting an application for the Texas Award for Performance Excellence at the Engagement Level. 

The Engagement award level is designed to help organizations assess whether they are developing and deploying a sound, balanced approach for running their organization.
 
Quality Texas focuses on an assessment and feedback process, education, training, and recognition to help businesses, schools, hospitals, non-profits, and government agencies improve performance. The Foundation administers the Texas Award for Performance Excellence program (based on the Baldrige Criteria), the state’s highest recognition for Quality.
 
The Baldrige Award is given by the President of the United States to businesses—manufacturing and service, small and large—and to education, health care and nonprofit organizations that apply and are judged to be outstanding in seven areas: leadership; strategic planning; customer and market focus; measurement, analysis, and knowledge management; workforce focus; process management; and results.

At a press conference in Austin last Thursday, Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Bruce  H. Leslie joined representatives from four other major community colleges to announce the I-35 Green Corridor Collaborative, a new partnership aimed at putting Texans to work in emerging green economy careers and attracting federal stimulus dollars to the region. The Alamo Colleges are joining forces with the Austin Community College District, Dallas County Community College District, Temple College, and Texas State Technical College.

“The Alamo Colleges is committed to taking a leadership role in educating and training the region’s workforce for the emerging green jobs economy.,” said Alamo Colleges Chancellor Dr. Bruce H. Leslie. “As the number one workforce provider in our area, we have a proven, world class education and training infrastructure that responds swiftly to emerging industries and their changing skill needs.  This infrastructure is already positioned to support the workforce development demands of the emerging Green Jobs Revolution.”

Through this revolutionary partnership, the five institutions will share their expertise, experience, and resources in order to create a collaborative approach to workforce training for high-demand green economy fields. The Green Corridor Collaborative will apply for federal stimulus money earmarked for renewable energy development.

The participating institutions will share curriculum through the Collaborative, eliminating wasteful duplication of programs. This will enable the participating community colleges to efficiently expand their training capabilities and help establish the region as a leader in green economy fields.

The Alamo Colleges are collaborating with the City of San Antonio, Workforce Solutions Alamo, City Public Service (CPS) Energy, San Antonio Water System, and a variety of community based and private organizations to transform San Antonio into a national leader in the fields of energy efficiency and clean energy.

In partnership with Workforce Solutions Alamo, the Alamo Colleges also have established a Green Job Training Institute to conduct energy efficiency, clean energy, water conservation, and environmental preservation and management training on San Antonio’s Westside.  As part of the Institute, a clean energy demonstration site will assist in building community awareness on the values of renewable and alternative energy. It can also be used to help educate San Antonio public school students in the benefits and processes of wind, solar, hydrogen fuel cell and energy storage technologies.

At the Alamo Colleges, high quality education and low costs provide exceptional value to students and alumni who are major contributors to the economy and culture of our community.  For more information, visit our website at www.alamo.edu.

The University of the Incarnate Word has been selected by the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) to receive a Wal-Mart Minority Student Success Award—a $100,000 grant to help build on UIW’s demonstrated successes in enrolling, retaining, and graduating first-generation college students. UIW was one of only 15 minority-serving institutions (MSIs) selected through a highly competitive application process to strengthen efforts to support first-generation students.

“The University of the Incarnate Word is honored to be selected as one of the outstanding institutions of higher education nationwide to receive this award,” said Dr. David Jurenovich, VP for Enrollment Management & Student Services. “Thanks to the generosity and vision of Wal-Mart, the university will be able to continue to enhance and expand our commitment to first-generation students and their success.”

UIW’s Student Success Award will be used to introduce a faculty development program focused on first generation sophomore student success. The initiative will educate faculty on sophomore challenges and ways of realigning teaching approaches to address these challenges and structure opportunities for faculty to share and be recognized for successful models for serving first generation sophomore students. UIW faculty will apply these strategies to first generation sophomore students through a cohesive freshman to sophomore transition initiative, to be conducted in advance of the sophomore year “We are excited to be working with such a diverse group of minority-serving institutions focused on improving the success of this critical student group,” said IHEP president Michelle Asha Cooper. “Their planned initiatives demonstrate a long-term commitment to first generation student success that builds on their well-established mission to retain and graduate underserved student populations.”

“The Wal-Mart Foundation is committed to helping our nation’s young adults live better – supporting programs that provide access to higher education is a key part of our commitment,” said Margaret McKenna, president of the Wal-Mart Foundation. “We are confident that our partnership with the Institute for Higher Education Policy and minority-serving institutions will positively impact many first-generation college students and assure their academic success.

Approximately 41 percent of students enrolled at MSIs are first-generation college students, compared to 30 percent of students at predominately white institutions. Because of their overrepresentation of first-generation students, MSIs are ideally situated to improve retention and persistence gaps for these students.

The Wal-Mart College Success Awards program is administered by IHEP and made possible by a generous $4.2 million grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation. 

IHEP will select a second cohort of Wal-Mart Minority Student Success institutions in spring 2010.

For more information, contact Margaret Garcia, associate director of public relations at 210-829-6001 or at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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