When Jaclyn Balli, an applied learning and development student, moved 300 miles north from the Rio Grande Valley to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher, she had a goal: return home and serve her community.
Last summer, the opportunity arose to do just that through the inaugural year of the Hook ’Em Here Harlingen program. The initiative, which is supported through a generous gift from the Michael and Alice Kuhn Foundation, was born out of a listening trip in June 2023 to Harlingen as part of the college’s efforts to understand and meet the educational needs of communities across Texas and beyond.
One of the key goals of this college is that our students leave with a deep sense of how they can be in service to Texas and beyond and this is a great example,
said Tara Kirkland, COE’s Director of Strategy and External Relations, who helped pioneer the project.
The inaugural class included nine COE students originally from the Rio Grande Valley and four from across Texas, allowing some to return home and others an opportunity to experience a new community and culture.
Among them was Balli, who dreamed of being a teacher since she was in first grade and proudly applied for the program to continue her mission of making a difference for future generations in her hometown as her teachers had done for her.
I applied in hopes of experiencing education from a teacher’s perspective rather than a student’s,
Balli said. As students, we go through school without fully seeing the deeper connections behind it. Getting to understand what goes into their education was a great experience.
Witnessing all the little details that go into providing a quality education made an impression on Balli. As a child, she only had to participate in activities, finish her work and turn it in. But, as an educator, she saw the effort put into planning impactful lessons, how to implement them and ensuring students are engaged and can use the information in the future.
“Being able to return to my community and see its growth was a great experience,” Balli said. “It was amazing to step into the teacher’s shoes.”
During her summer working in her hometown, Balli’s similar cultural background and upbringing are what helped her connect most with her students as they discussed music, pop culture and local favorites.
“They say their favorite pizza place is Peter Piper, which is still one of my favorite places, so I am like ‘Yes! We can have a conversation about this!’” Balli said.
For Balli, the program is a step closer to landing a teaching position at an elementary school back home in Harlingen. She hopes her work will inspire her future students just as her local mentors inspired her.
During the internship, she reconnected with her mentors new and old. Balli said the teachers they worked with consistently encouraged them and reminded them why they chose to be educators.
One of the mentors she received words of wisdom from was her former swimming and diving coach, Hector Castaneda, who worked with her from seventh grade to her senior year of high school.
Castaneda, who is the head coach of water polo, swimming and diving at Harlingen High School South, saw his former student down the hallway and immediately called out her nickname that he gave her in middle school.
I was surprised to see her here, but not to see her teaching,
Castaneda said.
He recalls hearing Balli speak about her dreams of teaching from a young age, even before she was certain of where her future would take her.
According to Castaneda, he has always tried to teach his students to view mistakes as opportunities for growth and to continue moving forward despite any obstacles they may face. Now, he is glad to reinforce this life lesson on his former students, like Balli, as they prepare for their own classrooms.
We have to get back up, we cannot give up,
Castaneda said. You are going to want to do something and something is going to get in your way, but we continue to go, and we continue to drive because we have goals that we want to achieve.
As a high school teacher and coach, Castaneda has learned that his role is much more than that for students as they grow up. “You are not just a teacher or a coach or an educator; you are a counselor; you are that older brother,” he said.
As his former students prepare for classroom roles, his advice is to remember that they have mentors to lean on too, like him and other senior teachers, and that asking questions is good and needed.
“I want my kids to succeed,” Castaneda said. “Seeing Balli coming into this program, and hopefully becoming a teacher, fills me with joy because she is succeeding in what she wants to do.”
As Hook ’Em Here Harlingen expands to a second year for the summer of 2025, the possibilities for the program are endless. The basis of the initiative could be applicable anywhere and expanded to include partner organizations other than school districts and bring in students from other COE areas of study, such as kinesiology and sport management.
A lot of students can’t afford to study abroad but seek real-world experiences,
Kirkland said. This is an opportunity to gain valuable experience while also serving populations and communities that need support.
As Texas continues to see a shortage of tens of thousands of educators every year, this growing program will help as a means of response and allow students to dive into teaching.
What we hope is that this is a pipeline of highly qualified teachers for Texas and beyond,
Kirkland said.
