This story has been updated.
When Armida Flores first came to Alamo Colleges’ Westside Education and Training Center (WETC), she was planning to improve her English language skills.
But her experience would take her far beyond that simple goal.
She went on to earn a certificate from Northwest Vista College’s Community Health Worker program, which is partnered with the WETC, and later earned a bachelor’s degree. She now serves as a mentor to many students and is a bridge between the Latino community and health care workers.
“Armida’s journey is an inspiration for all nontraditional adult students who succeed in their pursuit of education by gaining access to college in their own neighborhoods provided by the Alamo Colleges’ Westside Education and Training Center,” said Debi Gaitan, Northwest Vista College’s interim president, in a statement.
The WETC has been a community hub in the Edgewood neighborhood for 15 years, located in a historic elementary school and serving a wide variety of community members.
A brand new facility twice the size of the original center officially opens Thursday, building on that legacy with more classes, state-of-the-art labs and an eye toward expansion. The $23 million project was funded by the Alamo Colleges District’s 2017 bond.
GED and adult literacy programs, job training and college courses are offered at the center, which is operated by the Alamo Colleges District. A community health program has also produced hundreds of graduates who have gone on to serve in the community.
The center, which will now be able to serve more students, offers low-cost, free and paid options for classes and programs.
Alamo Colleges District Chancellor Mike Flores said that the new center will offer more opportunities for college transfer credits, along with better access to labs and more classrooms.
In addition, the new center will offer core academic courses through Northwest Vista College for the first time.
Manuel Garza, a social justice advocate and WETC community advisory board member, was a driving force behind creating the center when it first opened in 2006 to bridge the educational divide in the community.
“The main focus has been to basically build the capacity of the students to be able to actually succeed in college course classes,” he said.
“The impact that we see is … the engagement of the community and we’re more of a community of learners. … Anybody can learn,” Garza said
The center aims to educate a wide range of people, from recent high school graduates or those that didn’t complete high school, to those returning to school to get higher paying jobs or specialize in a profession.
Art Hall, director of center operations for all the centers, said the proximity of the center to the community is key.
“We want to be a beacon of light for the community, not just an academic institution,” he said.
Hall said the center does direct outreach by knocking on doors, marketing via social media, bus wraps and sending out fliers.
The WETC also has partnered with community centers, churches and nonprofits to spread the word about its programs.
A pamphlet on continuing education is how Cynthia De La Garza-Parker, who graduated from high school in the early 1990s, found out about WETC.
De La Garza-Parker felt her high school education was inadequate, and she was discouraged from pursuing higher education — particularly as a Latina. “It was assumed that I would be a housewife,” she said.
But she went on to take some college courses and ended up with a job in the medical field. After changing course several times, including becoming a certified yoga instructor, she was starting to feel burned out. At the same time she was planning to return to school, she discovered the WETC.
Through the community health worker program, she learned valuable skills that she would later use in her clinical classes. Those skills included how to do field work, how to talk with people on the street and in clinical settings, and how to coordinate events. She also learned how to be culturally sensitive and explain health terms to people, she said.
“The personnel there were very helpful,” she said. “Everyone is always positive and encouraging, even to myself, who still struggles with imposter syndrome working with highly educated researchers and physicians.”
De La Garza-Parker is now a junior studying health communication at UTSA.
She said facilities like the WETC help expose communities to opportunities they might not otherwise have.
“We want to help or encourage people to get out there and get some type of certification, get some type of education, because knowledge is power, right?” she said. “We can only empower ourselves by learning.”
De La Garza-Parker said the center’s location on the West Side, where both wages and education attainment are low relative to other parts of the city, is particularly important.
“If we keep overlooking the underserved, then the wage gap is just going to get deeper, the poor are going to get poorer, the systematic … institutional racism is just going to continue,” she said.
The WETC also works with the city-funded Ready to Work program, which aims to give participants career certifications or an associate or bachelor’s degree at no cost.
With the WETC’s established track record, staff, students and community members are looking forward to the new 46,907-square-foot building.
The fact that it is located at the site of Lincoln Elementary, which opened in 1959 as a desegregated school serving both Black and Hispanic children, isn’t lost on Westside advocates like Garza.
“When you ask many students who have attended or received help at this center what does WETC mean to them, they say, ‘We Empower The Community,’” Garza said.
