AUSTIN -- When Socorro Rehling walked onto the El Paso Community College campus in 2000, she never imagined getting a four-year degree from a university.

But God willing, the 46-year-old former factory worker said, she will walk across the stage in a cap and gown in May and receive a bachelor's degree from the University of Texas at El Paso.

"I fell in love with school," Rehling said.

Texas border institutions, including UTEP and EPCC, are among the most successful in the nation at enrolling and graduating Hispanic students like Rehling, according to an Exelencia in Education study to be released Thursday in Washington, D.C. And if Texas is to meet future needs for an educated work force, the study recommends, more universities should follow the example of border schools.

"If we're looking at Hispanic student success, these institutions are doing better than those traditionally considered superior or better institutions," said Deborah Santiago, vice president for policy and research at Exelencia in Education and author of the report.

The Exelencia study analyzed data from eight institutions on the Texas-Mexico border. Together, the schools accounted for 5 percent of Hispanic undergraduates in the United States in 2005.

Hispanic enrollment at the border schools grew by about 35 percent from 2000 to 2005, compared with 30 percent statewide, according to the report.

Though the border institutions made up 10 percent of Texas universities, they awarded more than 30 percent of all the degrees or certificates to Hispanic students in 2005.

Santiago said her study showed that the successes of Texas border schools wasn't only because of their geographic location in heavily Hispanic regions of the state. Border schools in other states, she said, were not performing as well.

What set Texas border schools apart, she said, was a focus on serving Hispanic students in their communities, sharing data among educators from kindergarten through the university level

"These institutions are committed to their community, and I think that's made a difference in how they align and allocate their existing resources," Santiago said.

UTEP's scholarship program for EPCC transfer students is an example of those types of efforts, UTEP President Diana Natalicio said.

The program started in 1997 and has given nearly $1.6 million in scholarships to EPCC students who transfer to UTEP to complete a bachelor's degree. Private funds finance the scholarships, which cover almost the entire cost of a full-time course load at UTEP.

"We're always looking for ways we can reduce or eliminate entirely the kinds of barriers that occur at crossroads" in a student's education, Natalicio said.

A transfer scholarship has helped Rehling pay for her education at UTEP. Without it, she said, it would have been much harder to finish her degree.

In addition to taking classes full time, Rehling said, she cares for her ailing mother.

"To juggle that, I'm not going to deny that it's been a struggle, but it's been a struggle that I've enjoyed so much," Rehling said.

After graduating from Austin High School in 1981, Rehling said, she still had trouble with English and took factory jobs in the El Paso area.

In 2000, she said, she thought she'd try to get an associate degree from EPCC.

"Because of my age, I thought that's it, you know," she said. But she loved her classes. and instructors encouraged her to continue her education.

Until the scholarship came along, Rehling said, she wasn't sure how she would afford it. "I qualified for financial aid, but that's not enough," she said.

Rehling, who plans to teach middle-school science and math, said she was grateful for the efforts of leaders at UTEP and EPCC who helped her achieve a feat she never thought possible.

And she prays that her mother stays healthy long enough to see her walk across the UTEP stage this spring.

"Nobody's ever graduated from college in my family," she said, "and for her it's like a dream that she would have loved to have."

Richard Rhodes, EPCC president, said education leaders at all levels in El Paso are working to help students understand from kindergarten on that college education is affordable.

Programs such as early college high school allow students to earn college credit at no cost while they are in high school, he said, and can significantly reduce the cost of higher education.

About 850 students in El Paso County are enrolled at five early college high-school programs, and Rhodes said plans are under way for another program for students in rural areas.

"Parents are really taking note of the opportunity, and I'm seeing more encouragement because of the understanding that it's possible, and you don't have to go into tremendous debt to get a college education," he said.

On another matter, without significantly more Hispanic students, the state will fail to meet its goal of increasing college enrollment by 630,000 students from 2000 to 2015, said David Gardner, deputy commissioner of academic planning and policy at the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The Hispanic population is the fastest growing in the state, he said, and universities in all regions are working to attract and retain Hispanic students.

The Coordinating Board, which sets policy for Texas community colleges and universities, is already looking to border institutions for guidance, Gardner said.

"It's critical to the vitality of the state," he said.