It doesn’t seem so long ago that Juan Gilberto García, Jr. was a wide-eyed freshman from Roma, TX, carefully balancing his time in TAMIU classrooms with his exploits as a Dustdevil Soccer team member. But today, the ball is on another pitch. That freshman of two decades ago is now a TAMIU Vice President, leading the Division of Enrollment Management. He believes his education and career trajectory at TAMIU mirrors the University’s transformative power. “Today, I tell students: ‘I was in your shoes, contemplating the pivotal decision of where to embark on my higher education journey. The very reasons that guided me to TAMIU then are the same reasons that guide my belief in the transformative power of TAMIU now,’ ” he shared. His dedication, energy, and enthusiasm are contagious and this Fall helped TAMIU enroll the largest freshman class in its history (1,382) students, a 6% increase over Fall 2022, with an 8% increase in transfers to TAMIU. The total enrollment this Fall was 8,507 students, and shows both growth and recovery, he believes. García has had the rare experience of working in or helping guide some of the University’s largest student touch points over the years with proximity to Recruitment, Registrar’s, Student Success, Advising, Strategic Plan creation, budget development and implementation, and enrollment management. While he still tries his hand on the pitch with the occasional alumni soccer team event, García believes he has also become quite good at another sport: cheerleading for TAMIU. “It’s hard not to be a cheerleader,” he observed,” we’re one of the nation’s top degree producers for Hispanic-Serving Institutions, the highest-ranked regional university in The Texas A&M University System among Regional Universities West by U.S. News and World Report, our 2022 graduates have the State’s highest employment rate after graduation at 81.3%, and we have an aggressive commitment to always being Affordable, Accessible, and Exceptional. We’ve just launched our Proyecto Amigos initiative, which targets student engagement and elevating the sense of campus community here. Finally, this Fall alone, we disbursed over $50 million in financial aid for our students. That’s a lot to cheer about.” Read more about García’s journey and the future at TAMIU here: go.tamiu.edu/garcia-transformative TRANSFORMATIVE POWER OF UNIVERSITY HELPS ALUM CREATE NEW TAMIU LEGACY 10
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