Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi Summer 2004 Graduation to be a Family Affair for the Trevino’s
 
When Bart Trevino walks across the Memorial Coliseum stage to accept his diploma Saturday, Aug. 7 his parents won’t be in the audience applauding their son’s accomplishments. Instead, they’ll be right behind him, waiting to receive their master’s degrees.

In 1996, Bart’s father Jacinto Trevino decided to return to school when a back injury forced him to leave his job at an area oil refinery. After earning his bachelor’s in education from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi in 2000, Jacinto started teaching math at Carroll High School and before long he set his sites on a master’s degree in counseling. It was a goal his wife Josefa not only supported but also took as a personal challenge. Josefa, an English teacher at Moody High School, enrolled in the University’s Master’s in Counseling Program too, and, the following year, Bart was accepted at the University following his graduation from Carroll High School. Saturday, they’ll all see their years of hard work come to fruition.

“With all of us working and going to school, it created a lot of problems with scheduling,” said Jacinto whose two youngest sons are students at Del Mar College. “Just getting everybody together for a meal was tough. We’ve eaten a lot of fast food.”

There have been financial difficulties as well. Jacinto’s teaching position paid considerably less than his job at the refinery and coming up with tuition and money for books hasn’t been easy especially, with another son attending college out of state and another who recently graduated from A&M-Corpus Christi. Still, he says, the hardships were worth it.

“Money’s been tight, but the kids all work part-time and we’ve managed to get by,” Trevino said. “We knew that in the long run it would all pay off.”

For Josefa, Saturday’s triple graduation is “a dream come true.”

“I feel blessed, this is perfect” she said. “My husband and I graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School in Rosenberg together in 1969 and we’re graduating together again, only this time our son will be with us.”

The graduation ceremony for the more than 430 graduates from the College of Arts and Humanities, the College of Business, the College of Education, and the College of Science at Technology will begin at 4:30 p.m. The ceremony will be broadcast live on KXPX Channel 14 and aired simultaneously on Time Warner Channel 95, Grande Channel 14, Charter Channel 14, CMA Channel 51 and Cable One Channel 10. The ceremony will also be rebroadcast on Time Warner Channel 10 on Thursday, Aug. 12 at 10:30 a.m.