{"id":8515,"date":"2026-02-06T17:09:54","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T17:09:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/?p=8515"},"modified":"2026-02-23T15:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T15:07:04","slug":"shsu-texas-southmost-college","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>[et_pb_section fb_built=&#8221;1&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_row _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_column type=&#8221;4_4&#8243; _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;][et_pb_text _builder_version=&#8221;4.27.2&#8243; _module_preset=&#8221;default&#8221; global_colors_info=&#8221;{}&#8221;]<\/p>\n<p>By<strong> Arina Garcia<\/strong><br \/><em>Sam Houston State University<\/em><\/p>\n<p>On Dec.12, Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shsu.edu\/academics\/majors-programs\/criminal-justice-bachelors.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice<\/a> from the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice (SHSU-COCJ) through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shsu.edu\/academics\/colleges\/criminal-justice\/partnerships\/brownsville-tsc.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The first-generation Brownsville, Texas, native chose SHSU for its commitment to student success, accessibility and community.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a place where students are supported and encouraged to grow,\u201d Barrientos said. \u201cWhen I became aware that TSC partnered with SHSU, I was immediately very interested and excited about the partnership that would allow me to obtain my degree through a school I had always dreamed of attending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 2024, SHSU expanded its criminal justice program to Brownsville, offering in-person courses taught by SHSU instructors in a satellite classroom at TSC&#8217;s Tandy Hall. The collaboration led to a new educational model designed to eliminate geographic barriers that hinder student success.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.shsu.edu\/news\/2026-news-stories\/cocj-celebrates-first-tsc-path-grad\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Read More<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Arina GarciaSam Houston State University On Dec.12, Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the Sam Houston State University College [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":193,"featured_media":8513,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_gspb_post_css":"","_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[77,23,38,76,16],"class_list":["post-8515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tsc-in-the-news","tag-77","tag-brownsville","tag-cameron-county","tag-rio-grande-valley","tag-texas-southmost-college","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway - Texas Southmost College News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Texas Southmost College News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos-1024x561.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"561\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Rick Vasquez\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Rick Vasquez\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Rick Vasquez\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b\"},\"headline\":\"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\"},\"wordCount\":220,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png\",\"keywords\":[\"956\",\"Brownsville\",\"Cameron County\",\"Rio Grande Valley\",\"Texas Southmost College\"],\"articleSection\":[\"TSC in the News\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"copyrightYear\":\"2026\",\"copyrightHolder\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/#organization\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway - Texas Southmost College News\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b\"},\"description\":\"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png\",\"width\":2432,\"height\":1333,\"caption\":\"On Dec.12, Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice (SHSU-COCJ) through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Texas Southmost College News\",\"description\":\"Texas Southmost College News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b\",\"name\":\"Rick Vasquez\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/650f27925cc0eb228bb90293334e604816cd2802ad14cc877ae40764068458fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/650f27925cc0eb228bb90293334e604816cd2802ad14cc877ae40764068458fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Rick Vasquez\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/author\/rvasquez\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway - Texas Southmost College News","description":"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway","og_description":"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/","og_site_name":"Texas Southmost College News","article_published_time":"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":561,"url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos-1024x561.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Rick Vasquez","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Rick Vasquez","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/"},"author":{"name":"Rick Vasquez","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b"},"headline":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway","datePublished":"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/"},"wordCount":220,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png","keywords":["956","Brownsville","Cameron County","Rio Grande Valley","Texas Southmost College"],"articleSection":["TSC in the News"],"inLanguage":"en-US","copyrightYear":"2026","copyrightHolder":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/#organization"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/","url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/","name":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway - Texas Southmost College News","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png","datePublished":"2026-02-06T17:09:54+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-23T15:07:04+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b"},"description":"Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2026\/02\/AlyssaBarrientos.png","width":2432,"height":1333,"caption":"On Dec.12, Alyssa Barrientos was the first student to receive a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from the Sam Houston State University College of Criminal Justice (SHSU-COCJ) through the SHSU-Texas Southmost College (TSC) Pathway."},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/2026\/02\/shsu-texas-southmost-college\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking barriers: COCJ celebrates first graduate of TSC Pathway"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/","name":"Texas Southmost College News","description":"Texas Southmost College News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/83f21126bf065d71756655fc3d27544b","name":"Rick Vasquez","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/650f27925cc0eb228bb90293334e604816cd2802ad14cc877ae40764068458fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/650f27925cc0eb228bb90293334e604816cd2802ad14cc877ae40764068458fb?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Rick Vasquez"},"url":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/author\/rvasquez\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/193"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8515"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8515\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tsc.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}