Hinojosa III, Raúl

Dr. Raúl Hinojosa III was born in south Texas, but lived his early years in the Dominican Republic where his father worked for Texas A & M University on an agricultural development contract. At the age of six, he returned to Texas for all of his formal education. He graduated from Rio Grande City High School in 1981, where he was an honor graduate, president of his class, and earned the prestigious Eagle Scout award.

Raúl went to Texas A&M University immediately following graduation where he was a member of the Corps of Cadets, was also heavily involved in MSC SCONA, Great Issues and Political Forum and was named the Buck Weirus Spirit Award recipient in 1984. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in Agricultural Economics with a minor in Business Management. Beginning in 1985, Raúl was a manager for Hospital Housekeeping Systems of Houston, and he later moved to Rochester, New York where he was trained by IBM. He obtained his first job as an educator, teaching 2nd grade children at New Covenant Christian School in Penfield, New York.

In 1988 Raúl moved to Houston where he became a bilingual teacher for the Houston Independent school district.  He continued his education by receiving a Master’s of Education in Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language at Houston Baptist University in 1995. Raúl began a second Master’s in Administration and Supervision at the University of Houston-Victoria, while working as Assistant Principal at McNamara Elementary. One year later he became Principal at Helms Elementary. He was able to implement school reform and transform this inner city Houston I.S.D. school into a community-learning center, where adults could learn as well as children. Helms Elementary earned an “Exemplary” status from the Texas Education Agency in 2002.

In January of 2003, Raúl Hinojosa assumed the role as Principal of McReynolds Middle School as well as Chief Visionary Officer. Most notably, this inner city Houston I.S.D. school of 740 students earned a “Recognized” status by the Texas Education Agency after being named as “low performing” for many years before. Because of his leadership, Raúl was elected to the Board of Directors for the Association of Hispanic School Administrators. After this time, Faith West Academy, a private college preparatory school in Katy, TX hired him as Headmaster and Secondary School Principal (2005-2008). At Faith West, Raúl was able to help raise several million dollars to construct seven additional classrooms, improve the football and softball fields, implement technology, hire more staff and receive re-accreditation for the school. During this time, Raúl completed yet another degree, obtaining his Doctorate of Education in Educational Leadership at Sam Houston State University in 2006.

In 2008, Dr. Raúl Hinojosa began the international part of career as an Assistant Director and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Academic Bridge Program in Doha, Qatar. His greatest achievement was helping the institution to achieve accreditation while managing a budget totaling more than $7 million. He served as Vice President of Membership – Texas Aggie Club, Doha Qatar from 2009-2011.  From 2011-2014, Raúl next spent three years, in Atyrau, Kazakhstan, assuming the role of Director and Head of School at Dostyk American International School, a Chevron Oil company school.  Raúl was a co-organizer for Aggie Muster from 2011-2014 with Aggies working in western Kazakhstan.

In 2014 and 2015, Raúl served as the Interim Director General/Head of School at International Christian School in Heredia, Costa Rica. After 38 years in existence, International Christian School was purchased by Universidad Iberoamericana (UNIBE), a local medical university. Raúl supervised the daily operations of this 600+ student college preparatory private school, provided leadership, professional training and worked to establish effective systems for improved productivity. Dr. Hinojosa has just accepted the position of founding Principal at International Leadership Texas in Katy, Texas and looks forward to being back in the Houston area.

Dr. Raúl Hinojosa has earned a number of awards including Whitney M. Young “Educator of the Year” from the Boy Scouts of America, Leadership Excellence Vocation Award by the Houston Heights Rotary Club, Annenberg School Reform Award by the National Annenberg Foundation, and Teacher of the Year and Bilingual Teacher of the Year at Benavidez Elementary, Houston Independent School District. Raúl served on the State Advisory Committee for the Texas Consortium for Dual Language from 2002 -2003, and served on the Advisory Board at the University of St. Thomas from 1999 – 2004.   He was also elected to Chair the Deans of Academic Affairs in Education City, Qatar (Texas A & M, Cornell, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Northwestern and Virginia Commonwealth universities) in 2009.

Dr. Hinojosa’s professional training is as diverse and impressive as his work experience. He spent time with the East Asia Regional Council of Schools (EARCOS) as well as the Near East Asia School (NESA) Administrators Fall Leadership Conference in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Bangkok, Thailand, and Amman, Jordan. He also accrued professional experience with NESA on Adaptive Schools Training in Athens, Greece.  In addition, Dr. Hinojosa has been invited to present on effective dual language programs in Texas, nationally and internationally.

Dr. Hinojosa is married to Patricia, they have two grown children, Raul IV and Alyssa, who both have Master’s Degrees and are successfully working in Austin and Houston, Texas. He is the proud grandfather of Logan Calhoun.