Rudder High School graduate looks forward to joining the RELLIS inaugural class

Gutierrez will pursue her Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi

April 17, 2018

The more Rosalba Gutierrez heard about the RELLIS Campus, the more intrigued she became.

The Rudder High School graduate first learned about the RELLIS Academic Alliance in her Blinn College business class, where she received a flyer outlining the 10 bachelor degree programs offered by The Texas A&M System regional universities participating in the partnership. Intrigued, she attended the first information session where she learned more about Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi’s Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

“It impressed me,” Gutierrez said. “I got to speak to one of the deans and other A&M-Corpus Christi representatives and they talked about all you can learn in the program, such as real estate, marketing, finance and entrepreneurship. They even offer study abroad.”

Located in Bryan, the RELLIS Campus fosters cutting-edge research, technology development, higher education and workforce training. Through the Academic Alliance, students can complete their freshman- and sophomore-level courses through Blinn College, and seamlessly complete their bachelor’s degree in related fields from an A&M System regional university, including Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Prairie View A&M University, Tarleton State University, Texas A&M International University, West Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Texarkana, Texas A&M University-Kingsville and Texas A&M University-Central Texas.

Blinn will open a new 83,000-square-foot facility at the RELLIS Campus for the Fall 2018 semester. All RELLIS students will utilize the 19 classrooms and eight laboratories during the first academic year.

The Texas A&M System’s academic facility, located across the street from Blinn’s facility at RELLIS, is scheduled for completion in June 2019. Upper-division RELLIS students will complete their bachelor’s degrees at the facility upon its completion.

Gutierrez pointed to affordable tuition and convenient location in Bryan-College Station as important factors in her decision to enroll in Blinn College courses at RELLIS.

“It’s a really great opportunity,” Gutierrez said. “There will be professors from all over Texas coming to RELLIS specifically to help us and teach us different career paths, and there are going to be internships and other opportunities on campus.”

Currently a Blinn freshman, Gutierrez plans to major in management. A&M-Corpus Christi’s College of Business is accredited by AACSB International in both accounting and business, a distinction held by only 1 percent of business schools worldwide.

Standout features of the A&M-Corpus Christi Business offerings at RELLIS will include small class sizes, elite faculty qualified by ongoing scholarly and practice activities, majors in high-demand professions, summer internships with Texas employers, study abroad programs in Europe and Latin America and student organization engagement.

For Gutierrez, who runs her own foreign exchange trading business, it was too good an opportunity to pass up.

“I’m really looking forward to attending RELLIS and to being one of the first students to graduate from A&M-Corpus Christi at RELLIS,” she said.

For more information about the RELLIS Academic Alliance, visit https://rellis.tamus.edu/academicalliance.