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Each day, hundreds of rural south Texas high schoolers wake before sunrise to board vans that bump for miles over back roads, crossing ranch land and thickets of brush. Their destinations aren’t their local schools, but distant districts where specialized academies offer them training in nursing, teaching and welding, along with associate degrees.

The students’ home districts 鈥� Agua Dulce, Premont, Brooks County, Freer and Benavides 鈥� used to operate separately. They had a shrinking student population, were unable to provide much career and technical education, and struggled with low achievement. But seven years ago, a handshake between the superintendents of the Premont and Freer independent school districts gave rise to what would become the .

Today, the consortium, created to stave off consolidation threats and improve student outcomes, is being lauded as a . And the Texas legislature has encouraged other districts to follow its lead.

The five districts, located 45 to 90 minutes southwest of Corpus Christi and serving a student population that is at least 75% Hispanic, share six academies: Early College, for credit toward an associate degree; Grow Your Own, for future teachers; Ignite Technical Institute, focusing on welding; Next Generation Medical Academy, offering nursing and pharmacy education; Willa Zelaya STEM Discovery Zone, featuring computer technology, drone aviation and robotics; and Trade Winds Academy, for HVAC, construction and electrical.

Students wishing to participate in an academy choose the program they want in eighth grade. They take traditional core classes at their home high school and travel to the academies twice a week and every other Friday 鈥� about 10 times a month. 

Sophomore Juliana Farias catches a 6:45 a.m. van, driven by school staff and internet-equipped, at her high school in Agua Dulce for the 45-minute trip to the Grow Your Own Academy. Her friend Emmerson Perez, also a sophomore, does the same in the small town of Freer, nearly an hour west. 

They meet up at Premont Collegiate High School around 7:30 a.m. and walk to a nearby elementary to begin their day as teacher interns. The two won鈥檛 be in Premont long. They’ll return to their respective high schools by midday to continue their regular classes. 

Mylan Pena, a junior at Falfurrias High School in Brooks County Independent School District, chose the welding academy because it offers the chance to earn a free associate degree as well as industry credentials. When Pena was a child, his uncle and grandfather worked as oil pipeline welders, leaving home for weeks at a time. It鈥檚 a job he wants to pursue after he graduates.

鈥淚’m blessed to even have this opportunity,鈥� he said. 鈥淢y mom is a single mother. I know she wouldn’t have the funds to provide this for me. Getting the opportunity to take college (classes) for free and learning to weld for free means a lot.鈥�

Pathways like these are more commonly found in larger, wealthier metropolitan school districts. Texas has more schools in rural areas than any other state 鈥� about . As families flock to more densely populated communities, rural schools are left with scarce resources and sometimes merge as they struggle to serve isolated towns. 

That was the situation in 2019, when the Rural Schools Innovation Zone officially launched. 

The districts had to find something innovative to keep the doors open, said Michael Gonzalez, Rural Schools Innovation Zone director. 鈥淲e had no opportunities for kids,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e needed to do something about it.鈥�

The Premont and Freer districts obtained grant funding and partnered with Brooks County Independent School District to form the consortium. It expanded to include the Agua Dulce and Benavides districts in 2023. The five districts together have about 3,250 students.

Last year, 424 students were enrolled in the academies. Now, there are nearly 600. Gonzalez said 680 are projected to participate in the 2026-27 school year.

It 鈥渨as phenomenal鈥� how the Rural Schools Innovation Zone turned trends around for the communities in south Texas, Gonzalez said. He鈥檚 been the consortium’s director since it was created and was the sole employee for five years, before recently hiring a liaison to help coordinate between the districts and their college partners.

Premont, which had the worst of the partner school districts, increased its student population from 570 students in 2012 to in 2024. From 2018-19 to 2023-24, the school districts the percentage of their graduating students who pass the state鈥檚 in both math and reading from 30% to 51%. The percentage of seniors with dual credit jumped from 16% to 50%, while those with industry certifications increased from 8% to 38%.

Based on the program鈥檚 success, Texas legislators in 2023 to create a that funds similar collaborations among rural districts. The Rural Schools Innovation Zone is such partnerships across Texas. Last year, lawmakers for career technical and education programs, including the rural collaborations, and promoted them as a key strategy for economic growth in the state. 

Here’s a look inside some of the academies, and what their students have to say about their experiences.

Grow Your Own Educator Academy 

Farias chose the Grow Your Own Educator Academy at Premont Collegiate High School to fulfill dreams she鈥檚 had since she was a little girl.

鈥淢y mom was an aide for special education students and some of my best friends are autistic, and as a little kid, you don’t realize the differences until you grow up,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 get a lot of, 鈥榊ou don’t want to do special education. It’s a hard place to be and it’s a lot of work.鈥� But that’s what I want to do, so looking into the program, I was like, 鈥業 need to be in this. It’s something I want to do and I get to start early on in my life.鈥欌��

It was initially intimidating for Farias to travel to Premont, because she was the only Agua Dulce High School student in the teaching academy. But soon she met Perez, from Freer High School, and Ava Gutierrez, a Premont senior.

鈥淭hey’ve made it so much more than just the program, and I think that’s what keeps our programs going 鈥� because we all have relationships within the program that make it so much more than just college hours,鈥� Perez said. 鈥淚t’s cool because we’re from different districts, but we’re still friends.鈥�

The trio assist classes at Premont鈥檚 elementary school and day care before taking college courses at the high school. Premont High School staff teach some of the classes, while others are in person at colleges closer to Corpus Christi, like Texas A&M University’s campus in Kingsville, about 30 miles away.

鈥淥n Tuesdays and Thursdays, I was traveling to Kingsville, and then on Monday, Wednesdays and every other Friday, I was in the classroom in Premont,鈥� Gutierrez said. 鈥淚t was pretty overwhelming for a while, having to travel back and forth, but you get used to it. After a while, it just kind of starts becoming part of your routine.鈥�

Will Zelaya STEM Discovery Zone 

Andrew Herrera, 16, is a junior firefighter for a Brooks County volunteer fire department. He has been known to stay up until 5 a.m. at the station fixing equipment and changing the oil in the fire trucks.

His dad, the department chief, encouraged the Premont sophomore to enroll in the school鈥檚 science, technology, engineering and mathematics academy because of his passion for drones and fire truck mechanics. The program offers instruction in computer technology, engineering, oil and gas drilling, robotics and drone aviation. 

Herrera is pursuing a drone pilot license to assist with fire department calls. 

鈥淚 want to do it because nowadays it’s been getting a lot more difficult for ranch (owners), since they’re building so many houses and stuff like that,鈥� he said. 鈥淚f there’s ever a fire, I’ll be able to fly (the drone) up and I can do 3D mapping or I can find better routes for the trucks to take.鈥�

Haven Farias, a Premont senior, earned his drone pilot license this year. He said he鈥檚 also proud of his work building a life-size robot in one of his academy classes. The two passions are something he wants to continue to follow when he pursues a mechanical engineering degree in the fall at Schreiner University in Kerrville, Texas.

鈥淚’m licensed to fly, so I’ll have more opportunities with jobs and everything for the drone side,鈥� Farias said. 鈥淚 think it’s a great opportunity. Even though I’m in, like, 10,000 sports, and I’m doing five college classes, and then I have to do all my high school classes, it鈥檚 not really difficult. It’s all about time management.鈥�

Ignite Technical Institute 

For Amber Garcia, a commitment to achieving an associate degree is what鈥檚 kept her going at Ignite Technical Institute, the welding pathway at Falfurrias High School in Brooks County Independent School District. 

The Premont senior works two part-time jobs 鈥� sometimes overnight until 6 a.m. 鈥� while taking her regular classes, pursuing pathway courses and gaining college credit. Garcia was in the foster system when she was introduced to the Rural Schools Innovation Zone. Now she鈥檚 one of the best welders in the program, Gonzalez said, and one of the few female students.

鈥淚n my eighth grade year, my older brothers were doing it, and I was kind of inspired by it, but they didn’t like it,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted to do it. I fell in love with it.鈥�

Garcia said it鈥檚 sometimes hard to get up in the mornings and make it to school, but she always attends her welding classes. Gonzalez said he calls her on days she doesn鈥檛 travel to Falfurrias to make sure she鈥檚 still going to Premont High School. The work has paid off, she said, because soon she鈥檒l go straight into the workforce as a welder.

鈥淎 lot of kids are lazy, and our generation is horrible, but you just have to want it,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got to push yourself. You have to say, 鈥業’m going to do it.鈥� And no matter how frustrated you get, you just have to keep going. It’s just the growth mindset, but a lot of people don’t have that.鈥�

Next Generation Medical Academy

Mary Alice Cantu was admiring neighborhood Christmas lights with her children and Freer High School鈥檚 curriculum director in 2016 when she heard the school had landed a grant to build a health science pathway. She was the school nurse at the time.

鈥淚 said, 鈥業 really would love to do that,鈥� 鈥� Cantu said. 鈥�(My co-worker) turns around and goes, 鈥榊ou’re running it.鈥� And I’m like, 鈥業’m what?鈥� So I went from the school nurse to this, which was a totally different hat that I wasn’t expecting, but I’ve loved it ever since.鈥�

Cantu began teaching classes at what would become the Next Generation Academy without an education degree. She soon pursued a master鈥檚 program to have the credentials under her belt and entered her district鈥檚 new teacher academy. 

鈥淚 realized it’s one thing to be a teacher and another to be a nurse,鈥� she said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 behavior management, pedagogy 鈥� all these terms. I was like, 鈥榊ou want me to do a lesson plan?鈥� It’s like a patient care plan, but it’s for your class.鈥�

The nearest college program and hospital is close to an hour away, so it鈥檚 important that the medical academy be equipped as closely to a professional setting as possible, Cantu said. The high school鈥檚 home economics kitchen was into a model hospital, complete with a reception desk, patient beds, drug administration carts, IV stands and dummy patients. 

Students wear blue scrubs, clock into class with timecards and poke needles into silicone arms to draw synthetic blood before they practice on each other. There are multiple 7-foot-long touchscreen tables with digital replicas of bodies donated to science. Cantu can peel back layers of the cadavers and simulate health conditions for her anatomy or physiology classes.

Students can earn certifications in phlebotomy, electrocardiogram testing, patient care and medical assistance that can be used in the workplace. The academy got so popular that Freer鈥檚 next school nurse was hired as a second educator.

鈥淚t’s a good problem to have that we’re going to have so many students with certifications, and I don’t mind it, the numbers are growing, and we’ll just figure it out,鈥� Cantu said. 鈥淭here’s just so much opportunity for these students, whether they decide to go into nursing or not, they’re going to have the confidence and the people skills to be able to step into any setting and succeed.鈥�

This growing enrollment is a double-edged sword, Gonzalez said. As more students join academies like Next Generation, teachers have to play a game of Tetris with class schedules and schools have to consider hiring more staff in a remote area that鈥檚 hard to recruit for. 

Student attendance can also be tricky. Gonzalez said some teachers and coaches value athletics or extracurriculars over their academy programs, and students may miss a class they get only twice a week if their team has to travel for a game or conference. 

The number of educators who were present during the zone鈥檚 creation is also dwindling. The partner districts have gone through five superintendents in the past three years together, meaning more people are coming in who are unfamiliar with the model and how it works, Gonzalez said.

A couple of districts have the traditional eight class periods, while the others have block schedules, making it difficult to coordinate transportation between schools. And then there are the students who switch academies or decide to leave a program altogether. The STEM academy has the lowest retention rate, at 86%. Next Generation Medical Academy retains more than 96% of its students.

鈥淚t’s crucial that we have 鈥榢id magnets,鈥� or teachers who have a relationship with these youngsters,鈥� Gonzalez said. 鈥淭hey keep them in there, right? I’m not going to lie 鈥� we lose kids all the time.鈥�

Gonzalez鈥檚 own job keeps him working all hours of the day. That dedication earned him a from South by Southwest last year.

鈥淚 didn’t realize the magnitude of it,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t’s pretty neat. You know, I just try to stay the course, try to stay on it. I use the word 鈥榞rinder’ a lot because that’s just the way I was raised.鈥�

Gonzalez said the Rural Schools Innovation Zone allows the remote, small districts of south Texas to remain operating and, in turn, keep their communities alive. 

Each town can still gather under bright stadium lights on autumn Fridays to cheer on its football team. Students can continue to walk to their neighborhood school. And families stay because their children can still get big-city opportunities, he said.

鈥淲hy do kids pick schools? Usually for programs. They don’t go because they have the best English teacher, right?鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey have the best nursing program, the best baseball program, the best football program. They go for programming and then the 鈥榢id magnet鈥� teachers running the program. So if I can allow you to be involved with the best program in the world and you don’t have to leave your school district, it’s a no-brainer. That’s what we did.鈥�

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