Hachar program brings 45 Laredo students to Mass Comm Week

D.D. Hachar Visiting Hispanic Media Professionals Program will bring 45 students from Laredo ISD's Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts to Texas State University October 16 to experience Mass Communication Week. 

This marks the 15th year the Hachar Program has supported Laredo youth education by enabling the students' participation in Mass Comm Week. The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Texas State sponsors Mass Comm Week, now in its 29th year. The event features panelists, presenters and interviews that examine the current state of the media through discussions of various issues, trends and careers in mass communication.

Texas State's Eliseo Ceja, a senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, attended Laredo’s Vidal M. Trevino School of Communications and Fine Arts and visited the university as part of the Hachar Program during high school.

“The Hachar Program opened the doors to the world of communications," Eliseo said. "I never thought public relations was something I was interested in until I visited Texas State during Mass Comm Week which made me fall in love with communications and public relations.

Alicia Vazquez, an account coordinator at Shift Communications in Austin, graduated from Texas State in 2016. She attended the Laredo’s Lyndon B. Johnson High School and participated in the Hachar Program visits to campus.

“I didn’t know it at the time, but visiting Texas State through the Hachar Program in 2012 marked the beginning of my professional development," Vazquez said. "I was able to see the School of Journalism and Mass Communication in action–and fell in love with Old Main in the process. 

"Fast forward to fall 2013, I was stepping into my first mass comm class in Old Main still in awe that I was actually there," she said. "Texas State provided all the pieces I needed to build my career, from networking opportunities with some of the brightest minds in the industry to pioneering the Texas State Global News team by reporting in some of Nicaragua’s poorest regions."

The Hachar Program is a joint venture between the D.D. Hachar Charitable Trust of Laredo and the School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Webb County high school students visit Texas State for the day to participate in presentations by mass communication professionals and visit campus facilities, including campus media and residence halls. For many of the students, these trips are their first visits to a college campus. More than half of the students have indicated they would be the first in their family to attend college.

The Laredo students traditionally visit campus in October during Mass Communication Week so they can mingle with college students and benefit from a variety of mass communication professionals who speak on campus for the event. About 600 Laredo students have visited Texas State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication since the beginning of the partnership with the D.D. Hachar Charitable Trust in 2004.

For more information, visit www.txstatemcweek.com/d-d-hachar-program.