Governor Abbott Delivers Remarks At UTRGV Hispanic Engineering, Science And Technology Student Leade
AUSTIN – Governor Greg Abbott today delivered remarks in Edinburg, TX at UTRGV’s Hispanic Engineering, Science and Technology (HESTEC) Week Student Leadership Day. HESTEC, a nationally recognized program promoting science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, has been implemented at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley to address the growing need for STEM-educated students in the State of Texas. Today’s visit comes after Governor Abbott signed legislation this past session to invest more in STEM education and higher education research.
“The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley is an example of how Texas recognizes the importance of education in the RGV – It plays a pivotal role in our goal to have the best colleges in America and to increase the percentage of students with a college degree,” said Governor Abbott. “Your focus on STEM education and careers will put you on a path to make more money when you graduate, but perhaps more important is the skill and training you will have to change the world around you with your ideas and your innovations.”
Governor Abbott’s HESTEC Week Remarks:
**Gov. Abbott often deviates from prepared remarks.
The University Of Texas Rio Grande Valley is an example of how Texas recognizes the importance of education in the RGV. It plays a pivotal role in our goal to have the best colleges in America and to increase the percentage of students with a college degree. I am particularly proud of the new medical school and how it will educate the next generation of doctors and healthcare providers and will improve the quality of healthcare in the Rio Grande Valley.
It is an honor to join you today for Student Leadership Day. Your focus on STEM education and careers will put you on a path to make more money when you graduate. Maybe more important than that is the skill and training you will have to change the world around you with your ideas and your innovations.
Ten years ago there was no Twitter, no Instagram and no iPhone. In the past decade the medical advancements have been stratospheric. A few years from now when you are graduated from college and applying the knowledge you have gained, people across the globe will be doing things that don’t exist today. You will be part of the force driving that change.
I’ve seen a glimpse of that future. I toured Amazon’s newest facility in Texas, a building the size of almost 60 football fields. Customer orders were being filled by nearly 4,000 robots that were operated by just a few hundred employees. At United Launch Alliance in Harlingen and Space-X in Brownsville, we’re seeing space technology revolutionized. And soon here at the new UTRGV Smart Hospital we’ll see incredible life-saving advances with the latest in medical simulation technology.
Innovation has no end point. Anyone of you may discover, design or create the next new technology, or app, or cure that will forever change the world.
The reality is in Texas, anyone can achieve anything, even rise to the highest political office.
In overcoming my accident, serving on the Texas Supreme Court, becoming Attorney General and being elected Governor, I have found that your lives are not defined by how you are challenged, but how you respond to those challenges. I learned that deep within each of us, lies the character that allows us to conquer our circumstances and go on to achieve things that seemed beyond reach.
Without dreams, there is no need to work, and without work there is no need to dream. Success requires both big aspirations to dream great things and the work ethic to achieve them. You have both.
As you continue on in your education and pursue your dreams, your lives will be filled with exciting twists and turns. You’ll have many achievements and inevitably, you will face many challenges. But those challenges don’t determine your destiny, you do.
Where your path may lead, whatever you may do after leaving here, in the end it won’t matter if you are rich or poor, it won’t matter where you live, or what you do for a living, it won’t even matter whether you can walk. What will matter is the unique fingerprint you leave on this world. Ultimately, your life is measured by the fingerprints you leave behind.
We look forward to watching the paths you take and the unique fingerprint you leave on this world and the way that you will make America the greatest place on earth.
May God bless you all with bright futures and forever bless the great State of Texas.