Igniting Hispanic Students' Science Literacy skills at a Community College in the 21st Century

The fundamental role of science in our everyday lives places unique demands on future educators.~Although science literacy is vital it proceeds to be an emerging global concern. The overwhelming amount of change, ``fake news'' and misinformation that has unfolded since 2020 due to COVID-19 places new demands on educators. We believe, more than ever, that we need to reinforce and advocate for science literacy in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV) community. The vision of the project is to improve science literacy of future teachers (pre-service teachers) with the goal that they will take this information to their students and the community. An important part of this vision is to stimulate interest in STEM fields in the RGV that is 94{\%} Hispanic and where one-third of the population lives below the poverty line. The FUSION (Fostering the Ultimate Science-based Integrated Outreach Network) Program at Texas Southmost College (TSC) is a community outreach project funded by the American Physical Society (APS), under the APS Public Outreach Mini Grant. The project brings together two distinct TSC student cohorts: students registered in Education and Physical Science courses.