Pat Vargas:
CLASS OF 1967
Ysleta High SchoolClass of 1967
El paso, TX
Pat's Story
Marriage
I married my high school sweetheart, Victor Vargas. I actually met him in grade school--at Cedar Grove Elementary in the seventh grade. We married in the summer of 1969 between our sophomore and junior years of college.
Our children.
Our oldest child is Victor Jr. He graduated from Rice. He is married to Melissa and works for NASA with the Space Shuttle. Ronnye (Veronica) graduated from UT Austin and Yale Law School. She was an attorney in Austin, worked for George Bush in Washington, D.C. as Assistant Deputy of Labor, ran the School for Policy at UT-Austin and now is the Chancellor of Western Governors University. She is married to Chris Stidvent. Tiffanye finished her Doctorate at Michigan State in Sports Psychology. Tiffanye is a professor at UT-San Antonio.
Victor
Victor coached Varsity Soccer at Coronado High School for 18 years. I am proud to say he was quite successful. His team was in 15 State Playoffs, won 10 EPISD District Championship Titles, made 6 Sweet Sixteen State appearances, and his CHS T-Birds took the Texas State Soccer Championship in 1996. He was voted Regional Coach of the Year in 1995 & 1996 by the Texas Soccer Coaches Association. When his team won the Texas State Championship in 1996, he was voted Texas State Soccer Coach of the Year again by his peers in the Texas Soccer Coaches Association!! Needless to say, we are very proud of him!!!
We now have six grandchildren, Alex--age 15, Maddie--age13,Charlotte Marie--age 10 and Evelyn--age 7, Ava--age 5 and Ford who is 2 months old at this writing.. They are precious and wonderful. We have so much fun with them. Grandchildren are such fun! I really wish that Victor and I lived closer to them. Alex and Maddie live in Houston and Charlotte, Evelyn, Ava and Ford live in Austin. Close but not close enough.
My Job
I was an elementary school counselor. I loved my job. I actually got to counsel students and parents. I retired from the El Paso Independent School District in May 2002 after 30 years. Victor retired the very next year. He said that I made retirement look like too much fun. It really is.
Then, I became a National Trainer for CHARACTER COUNTS! a division of the Josephson Institute of Ethics out of Marina del Rey, California and traveled the nation teaching character and ethics to groups of teachers, administrators, sch...Expand for more
ool boards, policemen, etc.
I also worked part time for Region 19 Education Service Center as a Field Specialist with the Alternative Certification Program. I thoroughly enjoyed working with those individuals who have degrees in other fields and who wanted to become Texas educators.
In 2/01/09 I became the Assistant Program Manager for the Counselor Alternative Program out of ESC--Region 19. I was overseeing the program for individuals who have a Masters Degree in any field who want to become Texas School Counselors.
In June 2011, I finally decided that I wanted to focus all of my energies on our jewelry business, so I resigned from the Region. That chapter is closed.
Well, just to update. I thought that chapter was closed, but have now been hired by UTEP as part of their faculty working with Student Teacher Interns. It should be exciting. I look forward to it and I'll keep you posted.
As I said, Victor and I also started a jewelry business, "The Jewelry Box". We are having so much fun going to jewelry shows in New York, Las Vegas, etc. and choosing jewelry pieces that are unique. We are currently working on a website that hopefully will be ready in early 2012.
I wrote a book for elementary school children on character. It is called Alex & Maddie and it is available through my publisher MarCo Products in Pennsylvania. Our grandchildren, Alex and Maddie, are the hero and heroine in the book. My publisher just added "Alex" and "Maddie" puppets to accompany the book. These were developed in August of 2006.
I just started another book in which Charlotte, Evelyn, and Ava are the main characters. They are cuties and I am excited to finally begin writing this book. It will be fun. I'll keep you posted on its progress.
We were seriously considering moving to San Antonio to be nearer the kids and that Grandkids, but we finally took the house off the market when it went into a tail spin. It was just not meant to be. We are still in El Paso and enjoy it very much.
Victor and I just recently returned from seeing Pope Francis in Philadelphia. Quite a moving experience! Then a month later our grandson was born. He was born in Austin on October 23, 2015 and his name is Ford Thomas Stidvent. We are now the proud grandparents of six. Amazing!! Where has the time gone.
Here is hoping that all is well for all of you! Victor and I would love to hear from you!
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