How the next generation of bankers are being trained in the Rio Grande Valley

McAllen native Moisés Téllez remembers helping his mother translate financial documents from Spanish to English in high school to help the family stay on track with any letters or bills. 

“To make sure everything is in order, almost like the accountant inside the household,” Téllez told the Rio Grande Valley Business Journal. “I thought that was just everybody’s experience, but I found out it was just our community’s experience. Our community needs more financial literacy, and that pushed me to pursue a career in the financial industry.”

While in college at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Téllez worked in big-box retail and food marketing jobs, without a clear path to gain experience in his major of finance. He considered relocating to New York City, a major financial industry hub, after graduation. 

But then he heard about a paid internship program known as Bank on INT!, which pairs UTRGV students with South Texas banks for 10 weeks, so he applied. 

Since August 2025, he’s worked as a compliance analyst for Lone Star National Bank, gaining experience in his chosen field and working for a homegrown business. First as an intern and now as an employee. 

Téllez was part of the inaugural class for the program, which is a collaboration including UTRGV, South Texas community banks, and the Edinburg Economic Development Corporation. 

Banks pay the interns; there’s no cost to the city of Edinburg or its EDC. 

For Téllez, the internship was not only in his field of choice, but it paid $20 an hour, which was more than the retail job. 

In the second year of the program, Greater State Bank, Texas National Bank, Rio Bank, Lone Star National Bank, and Vantage Bank signed a memorandum of understanding with UTRGV, the city of Edinburg, and the Edinburg EDC to formalize the program. 

Demand has been strong; more than 400 students applied for a few positions. 

“Internships are not just a way of building the resume by one more line. They are transformational experience because in the classroom they are learning about finance, banking, credit and ethics, but during an internship they see how those principles are applied to a real institution, with real responsibility,” said Giorgio Gotti, dean of the Robert C. Vackar College of Business and Entrepreneurship at UTRGV. “We are committed to expand this kind of experiential learning so that every student has the opportunities so they can build confidence, develop a network and understand expectations of the workplace before they graduate.” 

The experiential learning relationship is symbiotic, said Julián Álvarez, executive vice president of community relations and business development for Lone Star National Bank. 

“One of the things I realized is that our interns have a wealth of knowledge, they talk to us about bitcoin mining and AI, things that I would have never known, these young men and women are so bright and we’re fortunate here in South Texas to have such talent,” Álvarez said. 

The local executive recently joined the La Joya school board and said he’s noticed there’s not a financial literacy class as part of the high school curriculum, or education about how home mortgages are financed and what’s needed to qualify for one in the future – so he’s considering how to integrate more of that in K-12 education.