The Mays Center for Experiential Learning and Community Engagement will merge next fall with the Office of Career Services. The combined resources will be renamed the Center for Experiential Learning and Civic Engagement and will occupy a new centralized space in the Science and Technology building.
In August 2017 the Mays Family Foundation made the largest donation in Texas A&M University-San Antonio’s history, a $5 million gift to support the Mays Center. The program is focused on bringing together the office of Experiential Learning, Community Engagement and the Career Services to best serve students.
“What we will be able to have is really going to be stellar,” said Dr. Edwin Blanton, executive director of the Mays Center. “In addition to launching the new space with so many new programs, at the same time, we are really going to be able to provide some great experiences for students and we really hope the students take advantage of them.”
Blanton says the focus of the Mays Center is rooted in the overall responsibility of the university, to help students gain experience and become more civically minded in preparation of whatever career comes next.
Kathryn Mays Johnson, president of the Mays Family Foundation, spoke of the $5 million donation and said A&M-San Antonio is “perfectly aligned with the Foundation’s mission.”
“We are honored to support this academic center and look forward to seeing the many ways it transforms students and our community.,” Johnson said in a press release.
A&M-San Antonio President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said, “[A]s a result of the Foundation’s generosity, our students will have more opportunities to learn through hands-on, high-impact activities, including serving our community.”
Experience is important, and in many cases, potential employers look for and care more about students experience than the students’ major. “It’s bringing all those things together to best serve students,” Blanton said.
The Mays Center will occupy over 4,200 square feet in the new Science and Technology Building starting Fall 2018.
Blanton said the Mays Center will have a very open community feel with a programming space for a variety of workshops to be hosted along with more interview rooms which will allow for more on-campus interviews, where potential employers can come and recruit students and give employment, internship and volunteering opportunities in a single but active space allowing for even more students to be served.
“It will look unlike any office that we currently have here at A&M-San Antonio,” Blanton said.“It will be a space for students to come in and learn about opportunities for community service, internships and jobs.”
