LIFETIME VOLUNTEER: Steve Wilder

Steve Wilder always knew he wanted to help people.
“In high school I did a lot of social service work, but I didn’t know it would lead along this path,” he said.
Wilder spent time as a teenager volunteering at summer camps for children with disabilities.
“I knew even then I had a knack for relating to a lot of people,” Wilder said.
Now Wilder serves as the coordinator and counselor for the Office of Disability Services at the University of Texas at Brownsville and Texas Southmost College.
In 1987, Wilder moved to Harlingen from Chicago, where he worked at a school for the blind.
He first took a job with the college funded through a grant where he helped students with the transition from high school to post secondary education, letting local school districts know that services were available for students with disabilities who wanted to attend college.
After the grant expired, he stayed with UTB/TSC as an advisor, eventually forming and moving into the Office of Disability Services more than eight years ago. Wilder said the program started with 50 to 60 students and has grown to helping 451 students last spring semester.
“It was all unplanned, but my life turned into serving people with disabilities,” he said. “This kind of job didn’t even exist when I was in college. So when I was studying, I had no idea I would end up doing what I am today.”
Wilder attended Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he received bachelor’s and master’s degrees. He later received his master’s in counseling and guidance from UTB/TSC.
It was there at Kalamazoo that he met his wife Leslie, who is originally from El Paso. When the couple visited her sister, they decided to make the Rio Grande Valley their home. After his wife got a job teaching in Harlingen, the couple, along with their two children, Evan and Alyssa, made the area their home.
“We were in our late 30s at the time, the children were in elementary and we were all ready for a new adventure,” he said. “We have enjoyed it ever since.”