It isn’t straightforward, nevertheless it is working. That’s the takeaway from anybody related to VIDA. “I extremely imagine in our slogan, which is educating one life at a time,” says Felida Villarreal, president and CEO of the South Texas nonprofit. “If we’re capable of make the slightest influence in only one individual’s life, that’s actually transformational for our group.”
Within the Rio Grande Valley, the place greater than 90 % of residents are Latino, and a couple of third of the inhabitants lives in poverty, that type of transformation may be generational.
Villarreal leads the Valley Initiative for Improvement and Development (VIDA), a company that has spent three a long time rewriting what’s doable for low-income, first-generation college students in one of many nation’s poorest metropolitan areas. VIDA pairs tuition help with high-interaction case administration and wraparound helps like childcare, transportation, and emergency help. All through the scholar journey, VIDA stays shut sufficient to college students’ lives to catch the moments when issues can get dicey and assist them work by it.
“We don’t simply give out a scholarship and need our members good luck,” Villarreal says. “We begin with the members’ wants on the heart of all the things we do, after which we construct a program that instantly responds to these wants.”
That design selection exhibits up within the numbers. VIDA served 860 college students final yr and is on tempo to serve 1,000 in 2026. 12 months-to-year persistence routinely exceeds 90 %, and commencement charges constantly exceed 80 %, far outpacing nationwide averages for public two-year establishments and for Latino college students specifically.
It additionally exhibits up within the tales.
From Pupil to Job Supplier
A few decade in the past, a younger lady named Adriana Moreno walked into VIDA at a breaking level. Her father, the household’s breadwinner, had misplaced his job. Cash was so tight that school felt like a far-off dream, not an actual possibility. “Going to highschool was probably not an choice to her,” Villarreal recollects. “Her household was actually, actually struggling.”
VIDA helped change the equation. With monetary assist and a counselor who stayed glued to her progress, Moreno enrolled in an affiliate diploma program in nursing. That first credential opened the door to a secure job. The expertise of being believed in opened one thing else. Moreno saved going and would in the end earn her doctoral nursing diploma, turning into an entrepreneur within the course of.
As we speak, Moreno is not only a nurse. She’s an employer and a group anchor, working three companies within the Rio Grande Valley, which embody a household medical observe, an aesthetics clinic, and a wellness spa that collectively broaden entry to care and create skilled jobs near house. For Villarreal, Moreno is the embodiment of what can occur when Latino expertise has the fitting scaffolding.
“Simply seeing the influence that our applications have in our local people,” Villarreal says. “Not simply on the particular person stage and their household, however now additionally empowering these people to turn into very profitable entrepreneurs and giving again. That’s one other stage of workforce and financial growth. That’s how you progress a area.”
Some VIDA success tales start in additional fragile circumstances.
Compassion Meets Resolve
Final yr, a single mom in VIDA’s nursing pathway got here in for what was purported to be a routine one-on-one counseling session. Midway by, her counselor realized one thing was off and began asking deeper questions. The scholar lastly admitted that she and her two younger youngsters had been dwelling out of their automotive, whilst she continued going to class and handing over her assignments.
“It blew our thoughts when it comes to how she was dealing with all of it,” Villarreal says. “She was doing all the things proper at school, and on the identical time she didn’t have a spot to sleep.”
Inside days, the group had tapped a group accomplice that gives transitional housing to single moms returning to highschool. The household moved into an condo. The scholar stayed enrolled, graduated along with her affiliate diploma in nursing, and is already again on campus working towards her bachelor’s.
That’s the type of assist VIDA prides itself on offering in hardest moments. Many members are first-generation school college students navigating monetary help, institutional forms, and complicated household dynamics on their very own. Villarreal has constructed a crew that expects crises and is aware of the way to reply with compassion and beauty.
“I actually suppose that sturdy management, particularly within the nonprofit or public service world, has to start out with listening,” Villarreal says. “You want suggestions and enter from the people whose lives you’re impacting daily. If you wish to achieve success or impactful in any approach, you need to deal with these challenges earlier than they turn into boundaries to varsity completion.”
