McDonald’s Hispanic owner-operators inform, treat Lopez students

Earlier this year, the GEAR UP stage moved to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley-Brownsville (UTRGV), where Cool Speak and UTRGV GEAR UP representatives helped the students complete the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and apply for the McDonald’s 2022-2023 HACER National Scholarships and other college scholarships. Velma Rios and her son Xavier Ohuille, sat in the second row at the event. “We found out about it through Ms. (Pilar) Janis, she’s an amazing counselor,” Rios said. “She’s helped our seniors go to their colleges helping them out with scholarships. She’s amazing. Hopefully my son will apply, he has honors. He’s probably going to graduate with an associate’s already and he’s going to the university in Corpus (Christi) to study kinesiology.”