4 minute read
CONNECTIONS ON THE RISE
CONNECTIONS
ON THE RISE
Tarleton turns challenges into opportunities, chooses results over apologies, and imagines possibilities where others see limitations. Regional communities, developing businesses, educational groups and research centers all want to connect.
They’re calling for answers and discoveries, for instruction and training, for leadership and support. We’re sharing ideas and multiplying the benefits to heighten living standards, empower a future-prepared workforce and advance the regional economy.
When Quanah in Hardeman County wanted to boost tourism, enhance workforce development and improve community services, Tarleton Texans were there. After meeting with municipal leaders, a team of 15 policy studies students worked a semester to identify solutions. Their research led to recommendations from federal and state programs, other organizations and foundations.
The students experienced the satisfaction of using their skills to lift a community, and Quanah found resources to put itself back on the map and on the move.
In another project, five Tarleton students, four faculty members and a half-dozen community partners joined forces to ensure that rural Texas residents had credible information to make informed healthcare decisions related to COVID-19. Billboards seldom reach country roads, social media is slow or absent, and clinics and hospitals can be scarce. Tarleton’s Rural Communication Institute and grants from the Texas Department of State Health Services made information booths, library events, outdoor health fairs and community conversations possible.
Connections with business and industry partners like Saint-Gobain Abrasives and TechFW provide true-to-career learning opportunities and internships that prepare Tarleton Texans to stay in the state and energize its economy.
economy.
The project ended in May but is expected to have long-lasting impact as a prototype for sharing disaster preparedness facts and figures in areas lacking communication technology.
Representing the most rural parts of the state, if not the nation, the Small Business Development Center at Tarleton is quickly becoming a leader in birthing micro ventures. The U.S. House Committee on Underserved, Agricultural and Rural Business Development invited Director Bill Leaverton to the U.S. Capitol this summer to share the SBDC’s achievements.
Achievements like a small-town childcare center that took seven months to develop because webinars and Zoom meetings need internet access, and none was available. Training workshops, technical assistance and counseling took place face to face or by telephone. Once opened, the center injected $260,000 into the local economy, created eight jobs and, perhaps most important, put rural parents back in the workforce.
Tarleton’s connection with the Tarrant To & Through Partnership (a coalition of school districts, colleges, universities, employers and community organizations) is providing clear pathways and bright futures for Tarrant County students — specifically Fort Worth and Crowley ISD graduates. Those who pledge to pursue a higher education may receive a tuition-only scholarship at Tarleton for up to eight semesters or the completion of a degree. The scholarship covers any remaining tuition costs after Pell Grants and other federal, state or institutional aid have been applied.
High school students in some 50 North Central Texas school districts are earning Tarleton credit for precalculus and college algebra classes before they graduate through a connection with OnRamps, a program that increases access to high-quality learning for students and teachers across the state.
Students take the university-level math courses over a traditional school year, receiving the high school portion of their instruction from their high school teacher and the university portion from a university instructor of record. As part of the deal, Tarleton provides professional development to help teachers broaden their content knowledge.
A $247,134 grant from the Sid Richardson Foundation is helping Tarleton further scale up its successful teacher residency program to a full year from a single semester, benefiting future educators, their mentors and partner school districts. The grant provides
salary for a site coordinator and stipends for teacher residents and mentor teachers.
Tarleton’s year-long residency model began in spring 2020 following grant support from University School Partnerships for the Renewal of Educator Preparation to place classroom-ready educators in Granbury and Huckabay elementary schools. The program now includes public schools in Stephenville, Glen Rose, Fort Worth, La Vega and Waco. Uplift Charter Schools in Fort Worth joins this fall.
A partnership with TechFW, a leading technology incubator and accelerator, is matching Tarleton Texans with start-up companies for 100-hour internships, imparting real world experience and fostering an entrepreneurial mindset. Located in Fort Worth, the nonprofit has helped launch and strengthen emerging enterprises since 1988.
Tarleton technology and engineering students are solving true-to-work challenges and graduating most employable thanks to long-standing internship opportunities with Saint-Gobain Abrasives in Stephenville. Some have job offers before they receive their diploma.
After this spring’s horrific events at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Tarleton’s Institute for Predictive Analytics in Criminal Justice connected with The Violence Project (a nonprofit, nonpartisan research center in Minnesota) to review 178 mass shootings occurring between 1966 and 2021. The thoughtful, multilayered analysis includes recommendations for prevention.
Connections bridge the gap. Connections promote the good and advance learning. They often lead to better outcomes. And we all fly a little higher.
RECORD BREAKERS. ADVENTURE SEEKERS. CHANGE MAKERS. RISK TAKERS.
TARLETON TEXANS ARE ON THE RISE.
