Category: Education

Education

Screen Time

Haylie Godoy

In a world where our screens are always within reach, it’s easy to lose hours scrolling, streaming, and tapping away. I know this all too well with TikTok being one of the biggest perpetrators, raising my screen time average while dragging down my productivity. My phone was the first thing I checked in the morning and the last thing I looked at before bed. The constant blur of social media posts, YouTube videos, and endless rabbit holes of mindless browsing. When life jumbles into one long stream of content instead of real, genuine experience and progress, something has got to…

Campus, Education, Featured

DEI ban causes rising concerns for the future of Texas higher education

Haylie Godoy

Higher educational institutions all over Texas have seen losses of personnel and student resources as a result of Texas Senate Bill 17. While Del Mar College has not been affected on a wide scale, the bill has sparked fear in some professors as to what legislators could go after next in the upcoming legislative session. SB17, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2024, bans colleges who receive state funding from having diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices as well as engaging in DEI training and hiring policies. The bills effect was felt on campuses across the state, but Del Mar…

Campus, Education

New Continuing Education grant opportunity for Building Construction Trades

Evie Lopez

Del Mar College’s Continuing Education department has begun offering a building construction trades grant to anyone looking to boost their skills. The grant, which started in August 2024, will continue to be available through June 2026. The classes are four weeks long, offered both on weekends and evenings. This grant offers classes in six different trades: carpentry, house wiring, cabinetry, plumbing, print reading and lastly trim and stairs. All students must be 18 years old, have either a high school diploma or a GED and must have the recommendedninth grade level in math and reading knowledge. The grant allows students…

Campus, Education

From the office to the ambulance

Brandi Villarreal

Paramedic student Jesse Gil, 44, has always had a lifelong passion to become a Firefighter-EMT After working as a financial advisor for 16 years, Gil decided to follow his dream. After working in the new career for nearly six years, he decided to continue his education in order to become a paramedic. “I am advancing my skill set from EMT to a paramedic so I can be more beneficial to my team and the patients in the field,” Gil said. Several paramedic students stated the hardest part about the program is not just learning the material but applying it during…

Education

Grant gives students a chance for success

Brandi Villarreal

As of July 1, Del Mar College is once again offering Adult Education classes for free. For four years beginning in 2014, the college served over 8,000 students with a $6 million Adult Education and Literacy Grant from the Texas Workforce Commission. But in 2018 the grant was not renewed, forcing the college to drop the course. But now, there are two grants that are currently active through Del Mar College. One grant assists with GED preparation, or high school equivalency preparation, along with career training services. The second grant is focused on English Language Learners and English as a…

Community, Education

OER Grant awardee saves students over $200,000

Haylie Godoy

With Open Educational Resources, higher education is not just more accessible—it has the potential to be more adaptable, inclusive, and engaging than ever before.According to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, an Open Educational Resource (OER) is a teaching, learning, or research resource that is in the public domain or has been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use, adaptation, and redistribution of the resource by any person.OER’s could be the solution to the growing costs of higher education in the country. College tuition and fees have risen over 80% in the past 12 years, with…

Campus, Education, Technology

Coding and competing

Andrew-Pól Clements

Youth program robots during weeklong camp Del Mar College held a five-day programing and coding camp for sixth- through eighth-graders, concluding in a robotics competition on July 21. Starting on July 17, 24 middle school students from West Oso ISD and other Corpus Christi schools met at the Oso Creek Campus. Over the next five days, the students began receiving instruction and getting the chance to grow familiar with the various types of programable robots the camp uses. According to Korinne Caruso, an assistant professor of computer science at Del Mar College, those first days can be difficult for some…

Campus, Education, Technology

Summer of science

Andrew-Pól Clements

Middle schoolers learn robotics, more at Del Mar camp For most middle school students in Corpus Christi, the start of summer vacation is spent at the beach, by the pool, or simply enjoying life beyond the classroom. But for 40 Corpus Christi middle schoolers, their first month of summer vacation was spent learning about robotics and engineering at Del Mar College’s Oso Creek Campus. On July 18, Del Mar bookended this year’s TexPREP camp with competitions covering robotics, architectural design and structural engineering. For six weeks starting on June 5, the students undertook rigorous instruction and coursework five days a…

Campus, Education

Poet reads to crowd from his new book

John Gonzales

Laughter and applause filled the room as George Bilgere, author of the newly released poetry book titled “Central Air: Poems,” read a few poems aloud on April 6 in the Venters Business Building. As Bilgere made his way to the podium, he donned a stylish pair of reading glasses, warmly greeted those in attendance and began with “Push,” a poem from another book about the peculiar nature of being a witness to childbirth. Despite the poem’s subject being an awe-inspiring experience, Bilgere opted to write it in a manner that emphasized the mundane small talk between a doctor and nurse…

Campus, Education, Staff

Journalism students win big title at TIPA

Webmaster

Staff brings home more two dozen awards from annual state conference Students in the college’s journalism and radio/TV programs recently attended the annual Texas Intercollegiate Press Association conference in Fort Worth, returning with more than two dozen awards including Overall Excellence for Best Newspaper and also for News Video Production.  Nichaela Shaheen, editor-in-chief of the Foghorn News, said the awards are a result of the staff’s dedication. “Knowing that all the time spent putting together our paper shined through gave me a sense of pride and accomplishment,” Shaheen said. “The Foghorn staff goes above and beyond to cover events with…