Catch the Next celebrates and offers congratulations to its fall Ascender graduates. A degree offers Ascender students better career opportunities and job security, and a degree is an investment in the future not only for themselves, but for their families and their communities. A college education extends beyond one generation and the future is brighter for all of us because of their success. The lives of so many have been positively changed by the action of our CTN partner colleges who, together with CTN, make it possible for these graduates to fulfill their dreams and give back to the communities in which they live. CTN and our partner colleges recognize that the students they educate are among the nation’s biggest untapped resources.

South Texas College held its first in-person graduation since Dec. 2019 due to COVID-19.  Ascender students from the Starr campus who graduated were Alexis Lopez, majoring in social work; Christian Diaz with an Associates in Criminal Justice; Samantha Salinas with an Associates in Biology; Robert Moran, majoring in Visual Arts; Genesis Martinez with an Associates in Elementary Education; Jesua Tejeda with an Associates in Music; Luz Rodriguez, majoring in Elementary Education and Angela Morales, majoring in Music. Yaileen Flores received her Bachelor’s degree.

STC President Dr. Ricardo J. Solis acknowledged the challenges brought on by the current pandemic in his address to the graduates. “You have a reached a parallel stage in your life’s journey. Despite these extraordinary times we have experienced, you have endured what no other student class has in over a century, you have become masters at managing changes and adjusting through an immediate crisis of much uncertainty.”