Some people may have heard the phrase 'No matter where you are, who you are, and what you do, just don't forget your roots.'

That's exactly what a Rio Grande Valley author wants to inspire others to do.

Thomas Ray Garcia founded a non-profit focused on uplifting the next generation of Latino students.

"I didn't realize what it meant to be a fronterizo or a borderlands man until I was surrounded by people who were not from the borderlands, who thought it was pretty unique to grow up 10 miles from Mexico," Garcia said.

Garcia is an author, professor and founder of a nonprofit dedicated to increasing college enrollment and graduation rates in the Valley.

He grew up in a low-income home with his single mom in Pharr. He changed his narrative through the power of education.

"I wanted to demonstrate there's someone who graduated from PSJA North, came from a low-income part of Pharr who could go to a place like Princeton and could still come back and uplift people," Garcia said.

Garcia said while at Princeton, he never forgot where he came from. It's what inspired him to become an author.

"When I was asked by my peers at Princeton, 'I hear that the Texas-Mexico border is a chaos zone. What's going on down there?'" Garcia said. "That's when I realized there are a lot of misperceptions about what it's like to be from a place like the Rio Grande Valley. It's up to people like me to tell our stories."

His book The River Runs tells the stories that represent the Valley.

But he doesn't just want to empower our neighbors through his writing. He wants to uplift the next generation of students to go to college.

In 2013, he founded the College Scholarship Leadership Access Program, also known as CSLAP.

"So, CSLAP started from that journey of almost not even applying to college in the first place. I didn't have a mentor to guide me along the way. I almost missed deadlines," Garcia said. "Although I had made it to Princeton University, I needed to help other students from the Rio Grande Valley do the same thing. No matter what university they wanted to go to, no matter what their end goal in life would be, I wanted to show them that community matters."

The mentorship program works with different local schools across the Valley. The goal is to increase college enrollment rates and create a support system.

CSLAP focuses on getting students into college and to keep up with their grades. It also raises awareness about being proud of your culture.