BROWNSVILLE, Texas - A group of students graduated from a course offered by the Texas Prairie View A&M University Cooperative Extension Service.
But this isn’t your regular curriculum item when pursuing a college degree for a particular career.
The graduates attended a Business in Development Academy, which was an eight-day course to be certified as Historically Underutilized Businesses to do contracts with the government.
The brief ceremony was held Wednesday, Jan, 29, at the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization in Brownsville.
Each graduate received a certificate of completion, some of them wore their best Sunday outfits and each of them showed how proud they were with bursting big smiles.
Jorge Guerra said he attended the free academy to learn about how to deal with the government.
“There are a lot of opportunities out there,” he said. “But you need to learn a lot of things, particularly how to deal with this particular market.”
Guerra said he was impressed about the services offered at the eBridge Center and wishes more people use the facility that is here for their benefit.
A fringe benefit from the academy is that each graduate will have access to what is available there for a whole month free of charge.
Daniel Garcia said he was glad to take the course.
He said he is going after an entrepreneurship and innovation degree at UT-Rio Grande Valley and believed what he learned at the academy will come in handy.
“You need to continue education yourself no matter how old you are,” he said. “It’s never too late to learn something new.”
Megan Rodriguez, the academy instructor and Prairie View’s extension agent for Willacy and Cameron counties, said more than 20 students received the certificates.
"Congratulations to our cohort. We had a good turnout. We had a total of 25 complete the class. Super excited to see them succeed and win those government contracts,” she said. “This is our second academy and the next one will be this summer.”
The academy covered an array of topics such as procurement threshold, tips for completing an HUB application, an applicant requirement and checklist review, among other things.
A HUB applies to person who owns at least 51 percent of a business and is economically disadvantaged and is a member of minority group, including Asian, Black, Hispanic and Native American.
Women and service-disabled veterans with a service-related disability of 20 percent also fall in this category.
