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MCALLEN, RGV - Texas A&M University celebrated the first anniversary of its Higher Education Center in McAllen last week with an event titled Founders Day.

In his remarks, Texas A&M Chancellor John Sharp explained the rationale for A&M\\u2019s investment in South Texas.

\\u201cMany of realized a long time ago that South Texas and particularly the Rio Grande Valley is really what the future of Texas is about. The reason it is is every business that moves into Texas right now doesn\\u2019t ask, how much can we get out of the county, how much can we get out of the state. They still try to do it but what they really base their decision on is how many 18-25 year olds live in that county and what is the education level of those kids,\\u201d Sharp explained.

\\u201cSouth Texas, everything from San Antonio south, answers that first question better than almost any place in the nation. The second question, that is the important one. What is the education level of those young men and women.\\u201d

Sharp said this second question hit home when his good friend, state Sen. Juan Hinojosa asked if he would meet a student who was about to graduate from Texas A&M, and her mother.

He said the story about the student and her mother \\u201cwas the real genesis\\u201d for the Higher Education Center in McAllen.

\\u201cWe met, and the mother, who spoke very little English, was crying the second she walked in and she was crying the second she left. I asked the student, what\\u2019s the matter with your mother and she said, she is a little bit overwhelmed. Why is that? I told her I wanted to go to A&M, and she asked where is it, and when I showed her and she saw it was at the other end of the world, she said that is not going to happen. You go to Kingsville,\\u201d Sharp recalled.

The above podcast provides the raw audio from Founders Day. Among the VIPs to speak at the event were Chancellor Sharp, state Sen. Juan Hinojosa, former Congressman Rub\\xe9n Hinojosa, and businessman Alonzo Cantu.\\xa0

And Chad Wootton, associate vice president for external affairs at Texas A&M University, explained some of the new projects underway that will be of particular interest to South Texas.

To read the new stories and watch the news videos of the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service go to www.riograndeguardian.com.