Outreach
CGWA and the Community
There is a clear and demonstrable correlation between economic progress, industrialization and the development of a technologically competitive workforce. The existence of comprehensive universities capable of laying out technological and scientific foundations is a necessary condition to foster economic development in a region. Science and technology programs play a crucial role by developing competitive high-tech industries and producing graduates ready to enter them.
The region that The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley serves is among the poorest in the nation by almost any possible indicator (unemployment, literacy, education, income). Our center is convinced that it can play a crucial role in helping transform the economic and social nature of our region. It is committed to do so by improving the rates at which U.S. citizens of Hispanic descent are awarded advanced degrees in basic science at the master and the Ph.D. level at the local, state and national levels, by increasing the number of Hispanic undergraduates in the areas of physical sciences, computer science and engineering and by augmenting the general scientific literacy of the Rio Grande region, thus providing a fertile environment for an increased high-tech component for border industries.
CGWA hosts monthly Astronomy in the Park public telescope viewing events at Resaca de la Palma State Park, monthly Science Cafe events at El Hueso de Fraile in downtown Brownsville, and the annual UTRGV Rio Grande Science and Arts (RiSA) Festival.