Dr. Tessa Pollack, President of Our Lady of the Lake University, and artist Ana de Portela have been selected as San Antonio College's Outstanding Former Students for 2003-2004.

Dr. Pollack said her selection in 2002 as President of Our Lady of the Lake University marked an important homecoming for her. "San Antonio is one of those cities blessed to have such a concentration of educational institutions, and it is where I had such a formative experience at San Antonio College and Our Lady of the Lake High School," she said.

She earned an Associate of Arts degree in 1967 from San Antonio College, which she chose because it was very affordable. Her most influential teacher was Florence Lieb, Professor Emeritus of English. "She propelled my interest in writing, which led me to major in journalism at UT Austin, and personally touched me in terms of career choices," said Pollack. She went on to earn a Bachelor's in Journalism at UT Austin, a Master's in Education and Business at UTSA, and a doctorate in Educational Administration at UT Austin.

While teaching at John F. Kennedy High School, Pollack was recruited to work at SAC, where she progressed from Continuing Education Lecturer to Program Developer, Assistant to the President, and Dean of Occupational, Technical and Continuing Education. She was selected President of the Miami-Dade Community College Medical Center Campus, the Glendale Community College in the Maricopa County Community College District in Arizona, and Our Lady of the Lake University.

She has been published and presented papers in numerous professional publications and at conferences. Also, she has served on many educational and civic boards, most recently on the boards of the United Way, World Affairs Council, Alamo Public Telecommunications, and she is a member of Mayor Garza's Commission on Integrity and Trust in Local Government.

Selected honors include Nominee for Dissertation of the Year Award, the University of Texas at Austin; Distinguished Graduate and Visiting Scholar, the University of Texas at Austin; Arizona Woman Award 2001; Outstanding Educator, Hispanic Nurses Association of Dade County; "100 Influentials" in the National Hispanic Business Magazine in 1991; Miami Today Newsmakers Award; and the "Las Que Marcaron Brecha" Award from MANA de San Antonio and KLRN-TV.

Bruce M. Flohr, President of Flohr Enterprise, Inc. and Chair of Our Lady of the Lake University Board of Trustees, praised President Pollack as an excellent role model. "She grew up in the neighborhood where she now leads Our Lady of the Lake University. She is a perfect example of someone who worked very hard, took many risks, always accepted challenges, and persevered in adversity. Through her professional accomplishments and civic involvement, Dr. Pollack brings great distinction to her alma mater and is truly an outstanding former student of San Antonio College."

When artist Ana de Portela attended San Antonio College in the 1980s, she registered for an art class with Professor Mark Pritchett, Fine Arts Coordinator, which changed her life. "I was so overwhelmed with information, I dropped everything and took all art with Mel Casas, Ray Cox, and Tom Willome," she said, adding, "I made an everyday relationship with the world of ideas . . . They prepared me for the global."

She later studied at University of the Incarnate Word, University of Vienna, National Autonomous University of Mexico, and Trinity University Journalism Institute. She credits her preparation at SAC as critical to her success at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, where she earned her B.F.A. in Sculpture. "My professors were extremely impressed with my critique skills and studio discipline, [which] came from my SAC professors," she said.

De Portela sees her art as integrally connected to community and audience. This is evident in her organization of participatory events such as the multi-media "Embracing Grandeur" that featured artists whose work she believes was marginalized or underrepresented, and an interactive mural and outdoor screening wall to pay homage to the recently destroyed west side landmark known as La Gloria. She has also worked for Americorps/VISTA domestic peace corps as Director for Video-in-the-Community.

She was the first Latina and the first Texas awarded an international residency in Germany, Die Hoge, which colleague Martha Funicella said, "recognizes individuals working in the realm of the socially temporal and the consciously objective in categories ranging from philosophy, literature, performance/visual art and social sciences."

De Portela has appeared in numerous one-woman shows as well as two-person and group exhibits in Texas, New York, Vienna, Berlin, Copenhagen, Venice, Brussels, Los Angeles, Cologne, and Leipzig. She has been a visiting artist at the Bundesministerium Fur Wissenschaft Forschung Kultur und Kunst in Austria and Amerikahaus Video in Leipzig, Germany.

Her honors include the Mildred Perle Caplan Award for sculpture from the Maryland Institute College of Art, and Who's Who of American Women.