One of the buzz words heard throughout the Rio Grande Valley school districts is “teacher externships.”  The externships allow educators to work side-by-side with business and industry, thus gaining insight into career fields outside of the school settings. The educators, then, return to the classrooms and share their findings with their students. 

RGV LEAD, in conjunction with Workforce Solutions, has provided the Academic Leadership Alliance (A•L•A) externship experiences for Valley educators for the past several years…that was until the summer of 2020 – no thanks to COVID-19! RGV LEAD had to hit the pause button and put the externship program on hold, but it’s time to reactivate the educator-business externship experience. 

The A•L•A finance committee and planning committee met to discuss the future of the program. Naomi Per-ales, Community Relations Manager for Texas Gas Service and RGV LEAD Board Vice-President opened the finance portion of the meeting, as well as at the A•L•A committee meeting. 

A•L•A participating districts will be glad to hear that the outcome of the meeting was that the A•L•A externship program will continue. As many programs throughout the world, the externship encounters will be a virtual pilot program. The A•L•A committee will continue meeting to finalize the specifics of the 2021 A•L•A educator externship program.