Edinburg, TX (KRGV) — The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley is using a new major to prepare students for jobs at local museums and parks as tourism grows in the Valley.

Benjamin Garcia is from Alton and studies public heritage and community engagement at UTRGV. The major is meant to help local heritage and culture stay alive.

"I really have only gone back and forth between where I live and the schools that I go to," Garcia said. "I just wanted to learn more about the Valley as a whole."

"The creation of this major was specifically to populate our region with candidates for jobs in various aspects of preserving public heritage," UTRGV anthropology professor Roseann Bacha-Garza said.

Bacha-Garza said her class has visited three museums and parks across the Valley. The visits included the IMAS Museum in McAllen, the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge in Alamo and the Museum of South Texas History in Edinburg.

"You cannot run a good museum if you don't have talented people," Museum of South Texas History CEO Francisco Guajardo said.

Guajardo said the museum is looking ahead beyond field trips from area schools and winter Texans.

The work needs education experts, people who preserve archives and people who administer and create content to keep the museum relevant.

"I hope in the future that I can work in conservation in preferably a site down here in the Valley," Garcia said. "I believe we should preserve what we have here already instead of it I'd say rot away or be neglected."