Two Edinburg Housing Au-thority (EHA) residents were awarded scholarships through the Southwest National Association of Housing and Redevelopment Officials (NAHRO) chapter. Brandon Rodriguez, Al-bores Courts, and Karla Treviño-Go-mez, La Posada, were two of the six resident graduating high school seniors that were awarded scholar-ships with the seven-state chapter.Southwest NAHRO is a regional chap-ter of different types of housing agen-cies that spread across Arkansas, Kan-sas, Louisiana, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Since 1989, the Southwest Council of NAHRO has awarded over $286,000 in scholarships. The competitive scholarship program is based on academic achievement, ex-tra-curricular activities, community ser-vice, and an essay assignment.

Rodriguez, was recently ranked 9th in the graduating class of Edinburg High School (EHS). In addi-tion to excelling in his academic cur-

riculum, he was a member of the EHS orchestra and mariachi group, Primer Orgullo. Besides participating in the fine arts program, Rodriguez also par-ticipated in the Mu Alpha Theta, French, Science, and National Honor Society chapters. Rodriguez’s future plans in-clude attending the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) and ma-joring in mechanical engineering. He hopes to seek employment in Space Exploration Technologies Corporation (SpaceX) in order to fulfill his dream of being a part of spacial explorations.“As a first generation student, being the recipient of such scholarship fills me with great excitement,” said Rodriguez.

Treviño-Gomez graduated from South Texas Business, Education

& Technology Academy (BETA) and was recognized by the College Board as an AP Scholar. Her accomplishments include being a mentor for BETA’s Kick-Off Mentors, an orientation program for freshman, Vice-President of VIVA Peer Tutors, a health awareness program, and President of the book club. She will be enrolling as an accounting ma-jor at UTRGV this coming fall. Upon receiving her degree, she plans on be-coming a public or private accountant.“I feel honored that they chose me,” said Treviño-Gomez, in regards to being awarded the scholarship. “In a sense, everything I’ve done has paid off.”The EHA executive director, Rodolfo

“Rudy” Ramirez, is proud of the young residents for being chosen as scholar-ship recipients. As an advocate for edu-cation, Ramirez is excited that both res-idents will be attending universities to obtain their degrees. It’s EHA’s mission that all residents be able to further their education in order to improve their lives.“We want people to rethink housing; via education we’re going to meet that goal,” said Ramirez. “Change starts with us.”

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EDINBURG HOUSING AUTHORITYEl Reflejo Newsletter

Volume 3 Issue 2

2nd QUARTER 2016

CHAIRMANJOSE RODRIGUEZ

VICE-CHAIRMAN ARMANDO BARRERA

COMMISSIONERELIAS LONGORIA

RESIDENT COMMISSIONER JUAN GUZMAN

COMMISSIONER EDUARDO GONZALEZ

Ciro Treviño Administration Building 910 S. Sugar Rd. Edinburg, Texas, 78539 Main Office

A publication by the Edinburg Housing Authority, 2016.

EHA Graduates become Southwest NAHRO Scholarship Recipients

EXECUTIVE DIRECTORRODOLFO “RUDY”

RAMIREZ

- Staff emergency training, Page 2- UTRGV & EHA, Page 3

- Catholic Charities Volunteer Day, Page 2- 5K Medal-making, Page 3

These months’highlights

Edinburg Housing Authority 2016 Board of Commissioners

Summer Office Hours: Mon.- Thurs.: 7 a.m.-5:30 p.m.

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In honor of Mother’s Day 2016, the Edinburg Hous-ing Authority held its annual Mother’s Day celebration on May 5th at the Albores Courts gymnasium. In collaboration with the Edinburg Department of Parks and Recreation and the City of Edinburg, EHA was

able to host the event for moth-ers. All who attended made the evening a memorable event as they enjoyed food, music, per-formances, and speakers. We had an attendance like never before and we are very happy everyone enjoyed the event.

Mother’s Day Event

Edinburg Hous-ing Authority (EHA) celebrated its annual Father’s Day Event by hosting a movie night for its residents on June 16th, at the Albores Courts gymnasium. Fathers and their chil-dren were encouraged to attend the event to enjoy a movie, popcorn

and pickles, drinks and cake. Door prizes were given to some fathers at the end of the evening, bringing to end a lovely evening.On behalf of EHA, we would like to wish all fa-thers a very special be-lated Father’s Day.

Father’s Day Event

YLA’s Sacred Heart Church Volunteer Day EHA’s Youth Leadership Association (YLA) volunteered at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen on June 13th, as part of their in-volvement in community service. The members volunteered at the church’s refugee center, a dona-tion-based program under Catholic Charities RGV that is directed by Sister Norma Pimentel, which as-

sists refugees seeking asylum in the United States. As refugees from Central Ameri-ca arrived, YLA members assist-ed them by providing them with a change of clothes, personal hy-giene items and a meal. The agen-cy would like to thank Sacred Heart Church and Catholic Charities for allowing our young residents to give back to the community.

Fire Inspector training and meeting The Edinburg Housing Authority (EHA) staff met with Fire Inspector Ruben Lopez, after having practiced a routine fire drill. During the meeting, the staff engaged in a Q&A with in-spector Lopez in regards to fire protocol, precautions, and safe-ty measures.EHA would like to thank the

Edinburg Fire Department and Fire Inspector Lopez for taking the time to teach our staff about fire safety. We would encourage our residents and community to seek out proper fire safety in-formation and to practice safety measures in their homes. For more information on fire safety, contact your local fire depart-ment.

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The Edinburg Housing Authority proudly participat-ed at the Make a Difference Fair hosted by Office of Student Involvement at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. The staff representatives interacted with the students, facul-ty members, fellow participating agencies and the organiz-ers to inform them of the life changing experiences that EHA has to offer.The participants were given a brief introduction to the agen-cy and types of opportunities available for them as students,

employees and residents of the city of Edinburg. They be-came informed on how they can choose EHA as the organi-zation for their final projects or internships. Additionally, they were told about some of EHA’s volunteering opportunities. We had a great turnout at the event and many students seemed very intrigued by the work and impact EHA is mak-ing. We hope to see many of them in the near future volun-teering here with us. We are truly grateful to Lora Lee Marti-nez from the Office of Student Involvement for reaching out to EHA and considering us a potential agency.

EHA participates in the UTRGV Make a Difference Fair!

Mrs. Lilia Cabrera, an Edinburg North High School ce-ramics teacher, taught some of the Youth Leadership Association (YLA) members how to make clay medals. As an art teacher, Mrs. Cabrera encourages people to be involved in the arts. She hopes the YLA members find some sense of pride by completing this

art project. The clay medals made by our young residents will be used in the 1st Annual EHA 5K Fun Run/Walk. Edinburg Housing Authority (EHA) would like to thank teacher Lilia Cabrera for allowing our YLA members to participate in this project and look forward to work-ing with her again in the future.

Lilia Cabrera and medal-making

UTRGV students from Professor Dr. Amy Weimer’s Psychology Child Development Class had a bilingual reading of the book The Hungry Caterpil-lar/La Oruga Muy Hambrienta, a picture book by Eric Carle for La Posada children on Saturday, April 30, 2016 at 10:30 am. UTRGV collaborated with the Edinburg Housing Authority with the help of Dr. Dagoberto Ramirez and as part of a Service Learning Project assigned to the

students. The objective of the story reading was to emphasize the importance of bilingualism and nutrition to children.The UTRGV students planned a scavenger fruit hunt for La Posa-da children after the bilingual story and provided a variety of crafts based on the book. The children were then able to enjoy the healthy and delicious fruit they found just like the hungry caterpillar in the book.

EHA Bilingual Story Reading by UTRGV students

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

EHA welcomes all housing students 13 to 19-years-old to join the Youth Leadership Association! If you have a child that would like to learn more about or be a part of the Youth Leader-ship Association, he/she can contact Diego Oros at doros@edinburgha.org or call him @ 956-383-3839.

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Rent deadline Due monthly by the 1st, but EHA gives you until the 5th to pay in full. There is a $15 fee for late payments.Community service Residents 18+ years old who are not ex-empt must volunteer 8 hours a month in order to comply with HUD’s Community Service Require-ment.

Resident Meeting Interested in finding out what’s happening at EHA or your development? Come find out at our next Resident Meeting. Meetings are led by the Executive Director Ro-dolfo “Rudy” Ramirez and all residents are invited. Please contact your property manager for next meeting location, date and time. *Please make arrangements to attend to receive one hour of community service.

Homework Help Sessions:

Sessions will resume September 2016If you are a high school or university student and would like to work as an EHA Afterschool Homework Helper, please contact your property manager and pick up an application at the EHA office. Deadline to submit the application is July 28, 2016. If you have any further questions regarding the homework help session, please contact Araceli Porras @ (956) 383-3839.

Become a great leader! If you know any EHA students that are currently attend-ing college or have attended, as well as any residents that are doing or have accomplished outstanding things, please con-tact us so we can feature them in the EHA Achievers blog by calling Juan Garcia at 956-383-3839. To view the EHA Achiev-ers Blog please visit http://mediaha.wix.com/ehablog.

EHA celebrated the last day of Afterschool Homework Help for this school year on Monday, May 2nd from 5 to 7 pm. Children from all five devel-opments enjoyed pizza and treat bags. EHA wishes to thank Little Caesars Pizza for their generous pizza donation to help our resident students celebrate. The next time you are at Edinburg Little Cae-sars Pizza, located on 1410 S. Closner, please be sure to ask for the manager and thank them for their support of EHA.

Children also worked on a painting activity and received free books for summer reading during the party. We would like to thank our high school and UTRGV Homework Helpers and par-ent volunteers for helping and mento-ring our young residents. In providing this weekly assistance throughout the school year, EHA Executive Direc-tor, Mr. Ramirez, hopes to emphasize the importance of doing well in school to our EHA students. We want EHA

students to be SUPER STUDENTS! Parents, thank you for sending your children to Afterschool Homework Help. Children have access to com-puters and library books during Home-work Help. We are here to answer any questions your child or you as a parent may have about school or homework. We look forward to see-ing your child during 2016-2017 After-school Homework Help in September!

AFTERSCHOOL HOMEWORK HELP CELEBRATION

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