It may be cliché, but the first part of student-athlete is student.

To get on the field, the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley athletes must first do their part in the classroom.

For student-athletes to be able to be out on the field, they have to maintain their GPA, and UTRGV Associate Athletic Director for Student-Athlete Success Julia Perez makes sure the student-athletes stay on top of their school work.

Perez works one-on-one with student-athletes to build class schedules and closely monitors their academic performance to ensure they succeed outside the sports world.

"If I see a student struggle with a math class or an English class, we do hire our own student-athlete tutors. Those are all meetings that are one-on-one based," Perez said.

Perez meets with every student-athlete during the summer to plan their fall class schedules, making sure each one stays on track toward graduation.

"I would have to sit down with every student-athlete and map out their degree, to make sure they are taking every single class that they need to in order to get that degree," Perez said.

If a student-athlete struggles in a class, Perez steps in to arrange tutoring and provide the support they need.

"Tutor appointments are always booked through the academic advisor. Sometimes the student-athletes will ask for a tutor appointment; it's mostly the academic advisor saying, 'hey, I think you will benefit from tutoring, I'm going to set up this appointment.' All the tutor appointments are in-house, that way academic advisors can monitor the tutor appointment that is happening and make sure it's going smoothly," Perez said.

The students also have an area inside the new Vaqueros Performance Center dedicated to helping them complete homework, attend tutoring and stay on top of their studies.

"They have computers in here, they have tutors in here, access to an academic advisor, it's a quiet space, kind of like a library," Perez said.

As UTRGV continues to find success on the football field, the success in the classroom also continues. That's why last June, the football team had 38 Athletic Director's Honor Roll recipients.

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