¨They save lives.¨
For María de Jesús Coronado, that simple phrase represents the transformation of her husband Cirilo´s cancer journey. But it also captures the foundational mission of The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) School of Medicine’s Area Health Education Center (AHEC) Program, an initiative built to bring exceptional, life-changing healthcare directly into underserved regions where access to healthcare has historically been limited.
Just over a year ago, Cirilo had been told there was little hope. Weak from cancer and unable to walk without assistance, the couple arrived at the UTRGV AHEC clinic in San Carlos, Texas, searching for one more chance.
Today, he walks beside her.
To María, that transformation began with a conversation. A promotora de salud (community health worker) named Belinda Montejano helped them navigate a healthcare system that once felt impossible — connecting them with physicians, arranging transportation, identifying financial resources and guiding them through every step of treatment.
¨If it hadn't been for this institution,¨ María said, ¨my husband would already be gone.¨
María´s story reflects the mission that has guided the UTRGV School of Medicine since it welcomed its inaugural class in 2016. As one of the nation's largest Hispanic Serving Institutions and home to the Rio Grande Valley's only medical school, UTRGV was founded to improve access to healthcare along the South Texas border while preparing physicians who understand the unique cultural and socioeconomic landscape of the communities they serve.
That mission comes to life through the UTRGV Area Health Education Center Program, which prepares future healthcare professionals while providing comprehensive, patient-centered care in rural and medically underserved border communities. Through AHEC clinics and the UniMóvil Mobile Healthcare Unit, students learn alongside physicians while patients receive low-cost or no-cost healthcare close to home.
Together, these initiatives have provided care through more than 53,145 patient visits since 2018, demonstrating that medical education and community service strengthen one another. For families living in the region, these programs provide vital care close to home. For future physicians, they provide something equally valuable: a classroom.
Building Trust Before Treatment
Long before a patient meets a physician, someone helps them take the first step. For Belinda Montejano, becoming a promotora was never simply a career choice.
¨I wanted to become a promotora because I like helping the community,¨ she said. ¨I like teaching people and making sure they learn about the different resources available to them.¨
Every day, Montejano connects patients with physicians, specialists, transportation, financial assistance and community resources. More importantly, she builds relationships.
¨Communication is fundamental for both the promotora and the patient,¨ she said. ¨People begin to trust us because we're giving them truthful information and connecting them with the help they need.¨
When patients cannot reach healthcare, UTRGV brings healthcare to them. Through the UniMóvil Mobile Healthcare Unit, healthcare teams travel throughout South Texas delivering preventive care, screenings, health education and chronic disease management directly into neighborhoods where transportation, distance or financial barriers might otherwise delay treatment.
Together with AHEC, the mobile clinic reflects a simple philosophy: exceptional healthcare begins by meeting people where they are.
That same philosophy transformed María and Cirilo's journey. After receiving devastating news elsewhere, Montejano helped the couple find specialists who were willing to take another look. She connected them with resources, coordinated appointments and ensured that transportation would never become another barrier to care.
¨They moved heaven and earth,¨ María said. ¨Every door opened.¨
Today, María shares that same hope with others.
¨I tell people about it because they save lives,¨ she said.
When The Community Becomes the Teacher
Medical education often begins with textbooks. At UTRGV, it also begins inside colonias (unincorporated, rural settlements often lacking basic infrastructure), community centers and aboard the UniMóvil.
Students from medicine, nursing, physician assistant studies, podiatric medicine, social work, exercise science and other health professions work alongside experienced providers. Here, they learn not only how to diagnose illness, but also how transportation, language, housing, culture and trust shape health outcomes.
Through AHEC Scholars is a program that prepares UTRGV students in health-related majors to work in interdisciplinary primary healthcare teams. Through this program, more than 225 students have participated in community-based experiences, discovering that some of medicine's most valuable lessons cannot be learned inside a lecture hall.
For students, every home visit, health screening and patient conversation becomes another lesson in the kind of physician the UTRGV School of Medicine hopes to graduate — one who understands not only disease, but the people living with it.
Few journeys illustrate that mission better than Dr. Briana Gonzalez DiGrazia´s. Before becoming a physician, Gonzalez DiGrazia worked as a promotora, helping families navigate healthcare resources throughout South Texas. Years later, she returned to those same communities as a UTRGV School of Medicine student through the AHEC Scholars Program.
Today, she is an Internal Medicine resident at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Her journey reflects the UTRGV School of Medicine at its very best: a community health worker who became the physician she once aspired to be.
Dr. Hector Trejo´s story follows a similar path. Raised in San Carlos, Trejo returned to care for patients in the same community that shaped him while completing clinical experiences through AHEC as a UTRGV medical student. Today, he continues serving South Texas patients as an Internal Medicine resident, carrying forward the belief that caring for a community begins by understanding it.
¨Our greatest legacy isn´t simply the number of patients we've served,¨ said Dr. Everardo Cobos, dean of the UTRGV School of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine and Oncology. ¨It is the lives we´ve helped improve and the students we´ve inspired to continue that mission. Every patient encounter becomes an opportunity to learn, to serve and to prepare physicians who understand the communities they care for.¨
A Cycle of Hope
For Cirilo, surviving cancer is still difficult to explain.
¨Thank God we're here as a testimony to all the work of every person who helped me,¨ he said.
For María, the impact extends far beyond her own family.
¨I don´t know how to repay everything they've done,¨ she said. ¨So, whenever someone needs help, I send them here.¨
Nearly 10 years after opening its doors, the UTRGV School of Medicine continues redefining what medical education can look like. Here, classrooms extend into neighborhoods. Patients become teachers. Community health workers become future physicians. Trust becomes treatment. And every life touched becomes another reason to keep serving.
María doesn´t need statistics to explain what that means. She has lived it.
Looking toward her husband, she smiles and offers the simplest explanation she knows: ¨They save lives.¨
About the author
Saira Cabrera is communications manager for the UTRGV School of Medicine, where she tells stories that celebrate medical education, healthcare innovation and the communities shaping the future of healthcare. A bilingual communications professional, she believes the most powerful stories begin by listening.
