Alumni News
Gilbert Rodriguez (’11), was awarded the Bill and Melinda Gates Millennium Scholarship this past spring. The scholarship is a six-year free ride (tuition, fees, books, room and board). Jason is applying the scholarship to an undergraduate and master’s degree at Texas A&M University-College Station. He plans to major in construction science and minor in architecture and then pursue a master’s degree in construction management.
Rosie Gonzalez Collin (’72) assumed the position of Executive Director of the Corpus Christi Hispanic Chamber of Commerce on December 1, 2010.
Miguel A. Escobar (’93) was sworn in on June 17, 2011 as a Registered Professional Land Surveyor No. 5630, one of Texas’ newest Licensed State Land Surveyors. LSLSs are the only Texas surveyors authorized to submit surveys and reports to the Texas General Land Office. Currently, there are less than seventy active Licensed State Land Surveyors in the State of Texas. Miguel is the Survey Department Manager of Cunningham-Allen, Inc., in Austin, Texas.
Blake Farenthold (’80) was elected U.S. Representative for Texas's 27th congressional district in November 2010. The 27th Congressional district includes a area in South Texas along the Gulf Coast which includes Corpus Christi and Brownsville.
Justin D. Flowers ('02) recently landed his dream job with ESPN. He will edit for the newly created Longhorn Network in Austin, Texas.
Kathy Contreras Miller (’75) is living on acreage in Pandora, Texas with her husband Jim. She and Jim are both retired and spend their time enjoying their eight grandchildren along with their dogs, horses and cattle. Kathy lost her father, Benjamin J. Contreras, this past New Year’s Day.
Lorraine Coldewey Reagan (‘54) and her husband, Ted, suffered the devastating loss of their home in the Bastrop area fires this summer. Please keep Lorraine and Ted in your prayers as they rebuild their lives. |
Graduate Spotlight:
Michael Daehne, '08, Named The University of Texas 2011-12 Outstanding Male Student Award
 The University of Texas Outstanding Student Award is presented each year by The University of Texas at Austin in partnership with the Texas Parents' Association. From the campus of 50,000 UT students, nominations were submitted by faculty, staff, and administrators. From that pool of outstanding student nominees, three males and three females were named finalists. After submitting further information and interviewing with the selection committee of administrators, staff, faculty, parents, and past winners, only one male and one female are selected by the University as The Outstanding Student Award Winners.
This year's Outstanding Student Winner, Michael J. Daehne, is a senior business honors, finance, and actuarial mathematics triple major. The 2008 graduate of Incarnate Word Academy was honored to receive the award. “I was fortunate to be named UT’s Outstanding Male Student,” Michael shared. “As I have said before, IWA is largely responsible for making me the person I am today, so any success I’ve had is a reflection of y’all.”
Over the past four years at UT, Michael has served in numerous leadership roles on campus. In 2010-2011, Michael served as President of the 450-student Business Honors Program at the McCombs School. In that role, Michael increased student participation by 125% and doubled the organization's corporate sponsorships. In April of 2011, Michael was elected to serve as President of the McCombs School's entire 4,400-student undergraduate population. As Undergraduate Business Council President, Michael serves as chief executive of the 101-member council and as official representative for all 4,400 undergraduate business students at the University level. During his time at UT, Michael has also worked extensively as co-chair of the McCombs College Tuition & Budget Advisory Committee, as a representative in the Senate of College Councils, as Supervising Peer Advisor in the Business Honors Program, a co-chair for the "Discover BHP" recruiting event, and as a Business Honors Program recruiting liaison. Michael also served a two-year term on the Board of Directors for a local non-profit organization, Eastside Community Connection. After graduating in May of 2012, Michael will be working as a business strategy consultant for Sense Corp Consulting. He will be based in Austin. |
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Jeanette Rivera (’09) is currently stationed in Afghanistan for one year. Jeanette graduated from St. Mary’s University and was commissioned as an officer shortly afterwards. She is currently a 1st Lieutenant and an Executive officer for her unit. We truly appreciate Jeanette’s service to our
country.
Noah Seger (’04) was a member of the design team that produced The Texas Tribune’s News App: Texas Public Schools Database. The app allows anyone access to key academic, financial and administrative information and comparisons about every public school district and campus in the state, such as…student completion rates, demographics, TAKS scores, average cost per pupil by program and administrative function and average teacher experience level and salaries.
Curtis Rock (’98) has been elected chair of the Leadership Corpus Christi Class XL.
Amanda L. Smith (’01) was sworn in by the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy as a Certified Public Accountant in June of this year.
Margaret Mokry Tomlin ('64) recently sold the lumber remanufacturing business she and her husband, Howard, owned for over 31 years. She is looking forward to enjoying retirement with trips to Albuquerque to visit the grandchildren and traveling the U.S. with her sisters.
Jennifer Ranly Zunke ('74) was named 2010-2011 Sinton ISD Elementary Teacher of the Year. |
