NHI students return to a “campus of hope” for Schreiner-hosted CWS

The National Hispanic Institute successfully returned to live, on-campus programming this week with a two-in-one Collegiate World Series program at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas. For students who completed the League Series last summer in an inaugural online edition of CWS, the program allowed them the introduction to Inquiry-Based Learning that the Thought Series provides, while a cohort of students from Mathis ISD did an entire CWS.

And it wasn’t just the CWS being hosted at Schreiner: A group of Mathis ISD students also embarked on their Summer Leadership journey by doing Great Debate training leading into their GDx online experience later this June.

At Sunday’s opening ceremonies, two representatives from Schreiner spoke to the students about being on the cusp of their higher education journeys. Mark Tuschak, Vice President for Student Recruitment, External Affairs, Marketing & Communications, said, “Our job as college administrators and professors is to walk hand-in-hand with you in your college journey to help you be successful in whatever you want to do.”

Dr. Travis Frampton, Provost and Vice-President for Academic Affairs at Schreiner, also spoke to the students, noting, “I want to welcome you to Schreiner University, and I want you to know that this is sacred space from our standpoint, because you’re on a campus of hope. And so I hope that the programs that you are a part of right now, that you will think about what hopes you brought to this campus with this camp, how you can foster and encourage each other, and how you can continue to take it off the campus and apply it somewhere else. Because, to me, that is the value of education. Education is a powerful tool to change the world, and not just to change it — to make it better.”

John F. Lopez, Jr., educational director for the CWS programs at Schreiner, welcomed the ability to work with students onsite after a 22-month hiatus.

“It was great to be able to work with the kids in person again, and I think that they responded well. They enjoyed interacting with each other in person. We set up the groups in a way that would mix kids up more, so they were in a situation where they had to work with people who they might not have met before. And I think that was a good experience for them, getting to know new people. And then doing presentations in front of a group again, I think they enjoyed that.”

He also noticed there’s a resilience in those who returned to NHI from the pandemic, and even with some students not being able to do an LDZ program last year, that, “You can still tell they’re NHI students.”

He also noted that the technology that NHI’s been integrating in programs was helpful and resonant even with this return to an in-person atmosphere.

“A lot of the projects that they did, their presentations, talked a lot about technology and how to use that moving forward to build on existing assets,” he observed. He noted that the Summer 2021 theme has to do with Third Reality approaches to community advancement, and that groups are thinking about ways they’ve been using online technology to apply to bringing their communities forward.

“One of the groups developed a technological platform that would allow for people to express their cultural identity and to move away from negative stereotypes,” he recalled. “Someone else talked about using social media tools as a way for us to build coalitions to engage with others over distances.”

The winning CWS League Series team, with winning coach Caitlin Leal from Schreiner University, included members all hailing from Mathis High School:

• Joannah Espinoza
• Israel Gonzales
• Christopher Medrano
• Melodie Soto
• Abigail Torres
• Yleanna Villarreal

Major Leaguers, also all from Mathis High School, included:

• Jacob Barrera
• Israel Gonzales
• Christopher Medrano
• Elizabeth Serna
• Abigail Torres

Team MVPs included:

• Camila Colin, John B. Alexander HS, Laredo, Texas
• Marissa Del Bosque, Mathis HS, Mathis, Texas
• Christopher Medrano, Mathis HS, Mathis, Texas

The Thought Series winning team included these team members:

• Jacob Barrera, Mathis HS, Mathis, Texas
• Ashley Briones, Cedar Ridge HS, Round Rock, Texas
• Israel Gonzales, Mathis HS, Mathis, Texas
• Megan Mendoza, Mathis HS, Mathis, Texas
• Brandyn Ramirez, Cotulla HS, Cotulla, Texas
• Nikolas Rodriguez, IDEA South Flores, San Antonio, Texas
• Yulissa Rodriguez, John B. Alexander HS, Laredo, Texas
• Nicholas Tapia , Richard King HS Corpus Christi, Texas
• Guadalupe Torres, Ann Richards School For Young Women Leaders, Austin, Texas

The Great Debate/GDx program is made possible in part by a grant from State Farm.