The Kilgore College Adult Education and Literacy program inducted students from across Gregg, Upshur and Rusk counties into the National Adult Education Honor Society (NAEHS) at its 21st annual induction ceremony on April 18.
Guest speaker at the ceremony was one of KC-AEL’s former star students, Ivonne Maldonado.
Maldonado was born in Mexico in 1986. She earned a bachelor’s degree in International Trade and a master’s degree in Finance in Mexico, where she worked as an executive banker and business owner.
In 2017 Maldonado moved to Texas where she worked as a student worker and substitute teacher – while working toward earning college degrees in the United States.
Her hard work payed off as she earned an associate’s degree from Kilgore College, and is now pursuing a bachelor’s in education at UT Tyler.
She currently teaches Spanish GED in the KC-AEL program, is an ESL paraprofessional for Kilgore ISD and serves as an academic coach for UT Academy (Summer School).
To qualify for NAEHS membership, adult education students must demonstrate the following attributes: effort, achievement, perseverance, initiative and desire.
Only five percent of adult education students nationwide qualify for membership.
The AEL program at KC offers a full range of free services to help adults improve their lives.
For information on the Adult Education and Literacy program, visit www.kilgore.edu/AEL or call (903) 236-2004.
This year’s inductees:
PHOTO:
First Row (l-r): Amy Stephenson, Maria Ann Baldazo, Kerime Cardenas, Koseth Brandon, Mayra Vargas Mata, Mariela Luna
Second Row (l-r): Victoria Sanchez, Tosha Oberg, Laura Hernandez, Bianca Schwindt (NAEHS Ambassador/Inducted in 2023), Camille Holland, Maria Alvarez, Dina Ola
Third Row (l-r): Matthew Slaton, Marcelo Lopez, James Odom, Rhiannon Reid, Malachite Lopez, Christopher Fugate
Photo by Rachel Stallard/KC
