MCALLEN, Texas - During his recent 2025 State of the City address, McAllen Mayor Javier Villalobos spoke about the city’s commitment to higher education.
The event was held at the McAllen Convention Center.
Villalobos specifically referenced several institutions that the city has partnered with in an effort to make higher education more accessible to everyone.
And he highlighted the “life-changing investments” that have been made to the healthcare system by investing with regional partners and higher education.
“Our partnership with UTRGV continues to flourish with a $1 million investment into the UT Health RGV Cancer Surgery Center that will open this year,” Villalobos said during the presentation.
“UTRGV is a world-class university and through their partnership we officially open another McAllen first in October: The McAllen ISD collegiate academy. And McAllen ISD students now benefit from a 65,000 square foot state-of-the-art science lab and lecture hall, while choosing from four study tracks: Health Science, Computer Science, Engineering, and Education. Just another reason why UTRGV is ranked number one in Texas for providing quality education that’s both affordable and accessible.”
South Texas College is another important partner in education for the city of McAllen, Villalobos said.
“STC’s programs include nursing and allied health program, and the institute for advanced manufacturing,” he said. “McAllen is proud to invest more than $2 million over the past three years to help train these much-needed health care professionals and logistic manufacturing graduates. And our investment quickly bore fruit. Just two weeks ago, it was announced that STC’s nursing graduates rank in the top of the state with 98% and 95% passing rate for RNs and VNs respectively.”
RN stands for Registered Nurse. VN stands for Vocational Nurse.
In addition, Villalobos said, some of the funds will pave the way for new programs beginning this year in partnership with Intel Corporation and STC.
“STC will introduce the region’s first Artificial Intelligence courses in manufacturing. This exciting new program is gaining national attention and will teach cutting edge manufacturing programing and coding using Intel data,” he said adding that STC ranked as “the most affordable online bachelor’s degree program nationwide and creating the STC Promise program providing dual credit at zero cost for high school students and an opportunity for all to attend at possibly, no-cost tuition.”
Villalobos said higher education institutions are creating exactly what businesses in the area need.
“We are so proud to see the groundbreaking of the new $49 million Texas A&M Health Nursing Education & Research Building. The future home of the Texas A&M School of Nursing, Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Research, right here in McAllen,” he said. “The nearly 61,000 square foot building will include nursing classrooms, study areas, a 10,000 square foot clinical simulation center, and space for a veterinary clinic and research laboratory.”
And finally, a new center dedicated to urban ecology, the first of its kind in the United States is a partnership with UTRGV said McAllen Commissioner Pepe Cabeza de Vaca in a video recording during the presentation.
“We partnered with UTRGV to build a Center for Urban Ecology at Quinta Mazatlan, Cabeza de Vaca said. “This $76million facility is the first of its kind in the U.S. A place of research and higher learning that welcomes families and school children to explore nature together.”
Once completed in 2026, it is expected that over 100,000 children will visit the center each year. Kids will explore the five-acre discovery garden and enjoy over 20 attractions over 24,000 native plants. This resource will be available year-round.
