SAC graduate Christian Villarreal returns to head Writing Center

A former student has returned to campus to lead the SAC Writing Center.

Christian Villarreal is the newly appointed academic program specialist for the SAC Writing Center. He is responsible for supervising and managing day-to-day operations at the center.

The SAC Writing Center offers free services to students, 教职员工, with professional tutors available to help students with writing in any discipline, through both in-person and remote 辅导. The center helps students with understanding assignments, 生成的想法, 撰写论文, organizing their papers and more.

In addition to his full-time position at SAC, Villarreal is pursuing a master’s degree in clinical mental health counseling at UTSA. He graduated from SAC in 2016 and transferred to Texas A&M University – 圣安东尼奥, where he graduated in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in English.

Villarreal brings first-hand knowledge of SAC resources to his role at the Writing Center, both from his time as a student and later as a tutor at the college. 在担任新角色之前, Villarreal worked part-time as senior student success specialist for SACMEN while also assisting at SAC’s Integrated Reading and Writing Center.

As a student, Villarreal took a non-traditional route to SAC. He left high school during his freshman year. In his late teens, he decided to earn his GED.

“当我十七八岁的时候, I knew in the pit of my stomach that I wanted something better for my life,他说. “I was ready for that change and growth.” With encouragement from his aunt, he found a free GED program at Restore Education, 在SAC街对面.

With his GED completed, he began attending classes at SAC. 第二年的时候, he began to participate in extracurricular activities, including the Honors Academy and the 圣安东尼奥学院 Men Empowerment Network (SACMEN), a free program providing support, 辅导, mentoring and other services to help male students of color achieve their academic goals.

“The Honors Academy helped me expand the academic side of myself, and SACMEN helped me a lot with leadership and networking aspects,比利亚雷亚尔说.

Villarreal was instrumental in helping to establish SACMEN on campus, Geraldo Guerra说, director of Academic Success Centers at 圣安东尼奥学院. Guerra oversees the Writing Center, SACMEN and other SAC 辅导 centers, which together served more than 1,500 students last semester alone.

“Christian is the perfect candidate for overseeing the Writing Center space because he understands overcoming challenges to pursue higher education and being persistent and consistent with his education,格拉说. “He’s a real role model to SACMEN and other students with similar backgrounds to see that higher education is for them.”

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