Students win $2,000 to start arts program at Edinburg Boys & Girls Club

All it took was a rough idea for two Edinburg High School students to bring home $2,000.

Sophomore Victoria Valdez and junior Christina Zerda traveled with four other students from the Rio Grande Valley last month to participate in the 6th Annual Ford Partnership for Advanced Studies Networking Conference in Palm Springs, Calif.

Fourteen students and several teacher nominees nationwide were invited to the conference, which is intended to prepare students for successful careers in business, engineering and technology.

At the three-day conference, the students came up with a business plan for a community project. They voted on which team received the $2,000 grant, and the other six teams received $500 to help implement their proposals.

Victoria and Christina proposed an arts & crafts program for youth at the Edinburg Boys & Girls Club.

Christina, 16, said she was just thinking about how she enjoyed the arts when she was a student and wanted to see more resources for students in Edinburg.

Now, the two are going to approach local Boys & Girls Club leaders to see if they can realize their plan. They're also going to work on raising money from area businesses and organizations to further expand their project by the end of the year.

The Ford Partnership requires quarterly updates and business plans as they go along with their project.

Victoria, 15, said she was "very surprised" when she learned she and Christina had won the grant.

"I thought our business plan proposal was too short," she said. "The others seemed kind of lengthy and had a lot of subtext.

"I think it was just a matter of making sense throughout the whole business plan. Ours was simple and to the point."

Area high school teachers have been using Ford projects in their classrooms for the past several years.

Jackie Leatherman covers Hidalgo County government and general assignments at The Monitor. She can be reached at (956) 683-4424.