About Thomas

Thomas Ray Garcia is a writer, educator, and entrepreneur from Pharr, Texas. 

 

Thomas is the author of the award-winning short story collection The River Runs: Stories and co-author of El Curso de la Raza: The Education of Aurelio Manuel Montemayor. He is the founder and board chair of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit College Scholarship Leadership Access Program (CSLAP), a lead coordinator for the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force, an adjunct professor at South Texas College.

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At Princeton University, Thomas focused on expanding opportunities for first-generation, low-income college students. He co-founded the Princeton Hidden Minority Council, wrote student blogs on behalf of the Office of Undergraduate Admissions, and received the Ward Mathis Short Story Prize for his U.S.-Mexico borderlands fiction. He majored in English as a Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow.

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Thomas pursued his master's degree in English at UCLA, where he taught courses in Rhetoric & Composition, American Literature, and Creative Writing. He is currently pursuing a 2nd master's degree in Higher Education Administration at UTRGV.

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Through CSLAP, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in the Rio Grande Valley, Thomas teaches college access classes and connects near-peer mentors to high school students in the Rio Grande Valley. He founded CSLAP as a volunteer-led summer program at age 19. After graduating from college, he formed and taught a high school course at Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD based on CSLAP's curriculum. He served as executive director from 2019 to 2023, and he currently serves as chair of the board of directors.

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In 2022, he ran for the Texas State Board of Education and earned endorsements from Run for Something, Texas AFL-CIO, and Texas AFT. He ran on a progressive platform focusing on expanding mental health resources, updating the statewide curriculum to focus on 21st-century topics like computer science & dual language, and protecting school worker rights.

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In 2023, Thomas entered county government as a lead coordinator for the Hidalgo County Prosperity Task Force, a new initiative designed to uplift residents out of poverty through developing human capital and economic opportunity.