COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On Wednesday, Blinn and Texas A&M put pen to paper for their latest automatic acceptance agreement and a program they hope shapes Texas education forever.
The Blinn College District and the Texas A&M Universities College of Education & Human Development announced the establishment of the Brazos Valley Teach Learning Community.
Chancellor of Blinn College District, Dr. Mary Hensley, and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at Texas A&M, Beverly Irby, did the official signing to start the program today.
"We want students to become interested in the field of education early on before they make their final decisions for what they want to do," Hensley said.
Blinn and Texas A&M seek to attract students from underserved groups in the Brazos valley to become educators through this partnership.
The process starts in junior high and high school. There they will be able to mentor and support students to encourage their continued interest in education. Bryan, Caldwell, and Hearne ISD's have already joined the BV Teach Network.
"I remember and I imagine most of your audience does too, their favorite teacher, probably teachers as a matter of fact," Hensley said. "It's important to have a continual pipeline to address each new generation and provide them the wonderful instructional support and help that they will need."
After high school, students will enter Blinn, go into the teacher education department at A&M, and then go immediately out into the workforce.
"Teachers touch the future," Irby said. They're the ones that lay the groundwork for our future lawyers, doctors, engineers, astronauts, whoever they might be."
Blinn and Texas A&M expect the BV Teach Program to transform the Texas education system and create the hub for Texas educators in the Brazos Valley.
"There have been 5,000 that transferred from Blinn to Texas A&M overall this fall, and it would be fabulous if we could get 5,000 teachers in the schools," Irby said.