Mike Garza

Biography

I am a native South Laredoan for the majority of my life. I was born July 1972 at the old Mercy Hospital to Jose Alonso and Maria Alicia Garza. We lived my entire childhood in the Villa Del Sol subdivision which was represented by district one for many years. I attended several elementary schools as a child and attended Nixon High School up until my junior year. Events in my family’s lives forced us to move to Rosenberg, Texas in 1988 and eventually I graduated from Lamar Consolidated High School in 1990.

After high school graduation I was awarded a minority scholarship to attend Wharton County Jr. College and subsequently graduated with an Associate of Arts Degree within 1 ½ years of starting the Business Administration program. I then transferred in January of 1992 to the College of Technology at the University of Houston central campus. There I studied various subjects that included, but not limited to, Transportation, Logistics, Warehousing, International Trade, Marketing, Sales, Engineering, and Purchasing. I received my Bachelor of Science in Industrial Distribution with a minor in Purchasing in the Summer of 2003. The entire time that I attended college I worked at various retail stores and received other scholarships and financial aid, including student loans, to help my parents pay for my education. At the time of my graduation I was working for a company in Houston named Independent Purchasing Services (IPS). It was a distribution supply company for all the multi-family housing in several major cities in the South Western United States. I began my tenure as a warehouseman then quickly promoted to inside sales until my eventual graduation from the University of Houston which prompted a promotion to Supervisor of the Department.

Later, I was afforded the opportunity to work in Laredo as an Account Executive for AT&T for a period of almost 3 years. During my employment at AT&T, I married the most wonderful woman a man could be blessed with, my wife Araceli, the daughter of Jose and Juanita Cardenas. Araceli graduated from Cigarroa High School and is also a life long member of South Laredo. After our wedding in June 1995 I became employed at Laredo Community College as the Director of Purchasing, a position I prepared for at the University. My short stay at LCC provided me the experience I needed to take a Job at a much larger operation at United Independent School District. I began my career with UISD in the Summer of 1997 and stayed as the Director of Purchasing until 2000. Beginning January 2001 I took on the new role of Director of Support Services with the additional duties and responsibilities over several departments including, but not limited to, projected enrollments, planning, boundaries, logistics management, and other duties as assigned by the Superintendent. In December of 2002 I attained a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

The fall of 2001 brought about changes for all of us after September 11. We were expecting our first child in October just one month after the tragedy. Nevertheless we brought home a healthy son by the name of Christopher Michael. Our second child was born in May of 2004 and her name is Maya Anali.
Throughout my life I have faced adversity with a clear mind and a determined focus. I have been blessed with my faith, my family, my career, my colleagues, and my friends. I am humble enough to understand that I am nobody without all of those things surrounding me. I just pray that God looks over all of us and that we continue to have our blessings of one another.