St. Philip's College Receives $200,000 Grant from San Antonio Port Authority To Train Workers for Boeing's 787 Dreamliner Project

(l to r) Scott Vieweg, Boeing 787 Dreamliner program manager; St. Philip's College President Dr. Adena Williams Loston; Carlos Peneloza, Boeing representative; Kevin Devine, Boeing site leader; Dr. Jorge Trevino, St. Philip's director of workforce training; and Bill Looke, vice-president, port operations, Port Authority San Antonio. (Photo by Patrick Evans)

The Board of Directors for the Port Authority of San Antonio unanimously approved a $200,000 grant to St. Philip's College to train workers for aircraft giant Boeing. The company recently was awarded work on the new 787 Dreamliner project and hopes to hire nearly 400 employees to work on the project that could have an economic impact of nearly $40 million dollars. Boeing will be able to train and maintain a pool of skilled employees with the workforce training provided by St. Philip’s College’s Southwest Campus. Boeing hopes to start the training by October.

“The partnership between Boeing and St. Philip’s is a great thing,” said Scott Vieweg, 787 Dreamliner program manager. “We will be able to offer training to these students, who will in turn be able to put that training to work on the most technologically advanced commercial airline today,” he said. “We wouldn’t be able to offer this workforce training without the assistance of St. Philip’s.”

SAC Summer Bridge Program Improves College Readiness Among High School Students

Students and program staff from the 2007 Summer Bridges Program at San Antonio College. (Photo by Leonard Ziegler )

Forty incoming 11th and 12th grade students from Jefferson, Edison and Fox Tech high schools recently graduated from San Antonio College’s Summer Bridge Program, which ran for six weeks in June through July, with funding from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB).  With a goal of improving students’ college-readiness levels, the program offered early assessment of students' placement levels with tests administered before and after the program, English and Writing remedial courses, as well as a remedial Mathematics lab.  

To facilitate the program, Dean Flores brought together all of his division staff, including Program Coordinators Daniel Sustaita and David Ellis. The team also included SAC’s Writing Center, the English, Reading and Math Departments; the Assessment, Career Planning and Internet Skills Centers; and the San Antonio Independent School District.  Additionally, during the upcoming academic year, Flores indicated that a coordinator with the SAISD will monitor the students’ high school performance to encourage their continued academic progress, and recruit them for dual credit and/or Weekend College. The monitor will serve as a contact to the college, and help the students transition into SAC’s Senior Summer Program following their high school graduation, and eventually enroll them in college courses.

Dr. Kristine Clark, SAC executive vice president, congratulates a graduate of the college's summer EDGE program. (Photo by Leonard Ziegler)