The Hispanic Educational Technology Services Consortium (HETS) celebrated its Board of Directors summer meeting at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY (BMCC) in New York. This meeting was hosted by Dr. Anthony Munroe, President of BMCC, on June 23th and 24th, 2025. More than 35 of HETS member institutions were represented at the meeting, both in-person and virtually, along with its new members: Northern Essex Community College from Massachusetts and Instituto Superior Tecnológico Consulting Group from Ecuador.
This Board meeting ends academic year 2024-2025, a year with significant new initiatives for the organization and its members. The strategic plan framework corresponding to years 2022-2025 focused on core areas of access, retention and successful completion, and online learning/technology integration was extended for an additional year and revised to include current new activities to provide better support to our member institutions and its communities.
Among the news shared with the Board were highlighted the major activities to support the organizational programmatic goals and services such as: HETS Learning Technologies Leadership Academy (H-LTLA), tailored workshops and webinar offerings; the HETS Online Journal with a total of 11 articles published; and tools and services accessible through its Virtual Plaza at its Website. Also, the results of our main events like the Virtual Best Practices Showcase, the Student Leadership Showcase and the Student Passport new initiative that provided academic experiences including two editions to promote student mobility: the first one held in September 2024 in Puerto Rico and the second edition offered in June 2025 in New York City. These editions impacted more than 70 students and key staff from HETS member institutions in the US, Puerto Rico, and Colombia.
Likewise, Board members discussed and approved the 2025-2026 Proposed Budget and selected the winter meeting dates and host. The winter meeting will be on February 12 and 13, 2026, at Ana G. Méndez University, Carolina Campus, concurrent with the 2026 Best Practices Showcase. Also, the Board approved to offer a new Student Passport Puerto Rico Edition from February 9 to 13, 2026, to provide academic experiences to students and key staff from the US and Latam at HETS member institutions in the Island and participate of the Best Practices Showcase.
During the first day meeting, HETS held its corporate session and six out of its 12 corporate partners attended the meeting and presented opportunities for collaboration, including: American Heart Association; Teach Access; InQmatic; Educational Testing Services; Online Learning Consortium; and the Collaboration Agreement with For a Bright Future. Also, a special session was offered the second day of the meeting to discuss the results of the Student Passport NY Edition and explore other ways to continue offering these kinds of initiatives.
During the meeting, HETS recognized the outstanding leadership of Dr. Carlos Vargas-Aburto, with the HETS 2025 Visionary Leader Award as Board officer and current Vice Chair of HETS Board from 2005 to 2025. The award acknowledged his vision, commitment, and his leadership towards an education of excellence with initiatives like the HETS Collaboration opportunities and student internships, among others.