Two Javelinas are bound for nationals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Feb. 19, six students from Texas A&M University-Kingsville\u2019s chapter of Texas Association of Future Educators (TAFE) competed at the TAFE State competition at Moody Gardens in Galveston, Texas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Out of the six students, Kylie Valenta and Natalie Pittman advanced to Nationals from June 26 to 29 in Orlando Fla. for the second year in a row for their presentation in an interactive bulletin board contest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI feel extremely proud of what we have been able to accomplish in the past two years. Not only did we found TAFE on campus, but we have also been able to represent TAMUK at a National level, which I think is incredible. I hope that in doing these competitions, it encourages other students and future students of TAMUK to join the program and have the\u00a0chance to make their university proud,\u201d Valenta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Along with a qualification for nationals by Pittman and Valenta, more awards were raked in by the group of six women who represented Javelina Nation at the TAFE State Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSix students represented us at state competition. Kylie and Natalie achieved National Qualifier status with a perfect score in Interactive Bulletin Board. Melina Ramirez and Clara Roznovsky also earned a Gold Award and perfect score for their Breakout Session Event. Additionally, Kylie and Natalie each earned Bronze Awards in the Educators Rising Moment event, and Hailey Salinas received a Bronze Award for Interactive Bulletin Board,\u201d Assistant Director for Recruitment & Outreach and TAMUK TAFE Chapter Advisor Kimberly London said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 2025 TAFE state competition brought an interactive environment in which students could network and meet fellow future educators. The hard work and preparation of the six students who attended the competition allowed them to succeed under pressure and compete to the best of their abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe state experience was both exciting and stressful. There were moments of nerves, especially when presenting in front of judges for both of my events, but it was also rewarding to see everything come together. The competition itself was intense, but getting to meet other competitors, see different projects, and bond with my team made it a really memorable experience. I think we all grew closer as a team while we were there and I\u2019m really proud of everyone,\u201d Pittman said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After competing at the TAFE state competition and the competitions that came before state, the six students who competed walked away with accomplishments that will help bolster their resum\u00e9s and further their careers once they graduate from TAMUK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnytime you interview, you know, when you submit your resum\u00e9 or your CV, one of the sections is have you received any awards, any accomplishments, or any recognition. And that\u2019s going to be at the top of their list. And to know that they were able to travel and meet the requirements to Nationals – now, it\u2019s two years in a row – I hope that they continue to excel. And I know that they will,\u201d Interim Dean of the College of Education & Human Performance Dr. Linda Villarreal said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pittman,Valente to return to\u00a0nationals Two Javelinas are bound for nationals. On Feb. 19, six students from Texas A&M University-Kingsville\u2019s chapter of Texas Association of Future… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"featured_media":11276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,125],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[264],"class_list":["post-11275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus","category-news-and-features"],"aioseo_notices":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":"","source_text":"","source_url":""},"authors":[{"term_id":264,"user_id":126,"is_guest":0,"slug":"matthew-roberts","display_name":"Matthew Roberts","avatar_url":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/wp-content\/litespeed\/avatar\/1e435b79941bab17484fb9c9a660b0ad.jpg?ver=1778633080","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11275"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11277,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11275\/revisions\/11277"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11275"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesouthtexan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}