Veronica Valdes
Editor-in-Chief
The Achiever Promise will provide scholarship opportunities to high-achieving students enrolling at Texas A&M University-San Antonio, officials announced at a press conference Sept. 22 at East Central High School Patterson Performing Arts Center.
Through the Achiever Promise, students meeting the criteria will qualify for four years of free tuition to A&M-San Antonio.
“The year 2020 has brought challenges and uncertainty,” President Cynthia Teniente-Matson said. However, there is absolutely no doubt in my mind, you are resilient and have the ability to enroll and persist, to seize each and every opportunity and graduate with a college degree.”
The Achiever Promise will be for high-school students graduating in the top 10% of their class and for students graduating with a minimum of 30 credits from an Early College High School, said Brandy McLelland, vice president of enrollment management.
The graduates must be from Edgewood, East Central, Harlandale, Somerset, South San, Southside or Southwest independent school districts. The seven districts are part of ASPIRE, a partnership with A&M-San Antonio to increase equity throughout Bexar County.
“We know that for many families the cost of education makes the prospect of going to college seem like an impossibility,” said Matson. “The fact that our tuition is the lowest of the 4-year institutions in San Antonio, and that 73% of our students graduate with little to no debt, is by design.”
The Achiever Promise is funded through a $100 million scholarship fund created by the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents, Matson said.
The Texas A&M System will distribute $10 million annually over a 10-year span to its 11 universities; each campus will have to fundraise to support the program. Although the scholarship fund is for students of all socioeconomic backgrounds, it is mainly directed at geographically underrepresented regions, low-income and first-generation students throughout Texas, according to a press release.
“We are here to serve you, our community, by providing access and a pathway to earn a degree,” said Matson.
Throughout the seven districts, the percentages of families living below the poverty line ranges from 10.2% – 40.4% with over half of their students identifying as Hispanic, according to the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES).
NCES reports the university’s makeup to have 74.7% of students from Hispanic backgrounds in 2019. As of Sept. 3, 6,856 students were enrolled at A&M-San Antonio, said Matson in a meeting with the Faculty Senate on Sept. 4.
“Seventy-one percent of our students are first-year generation,” said Melissa Morales, director of admissions. “So, that tells a lot about our communities, our students and their families, and what we put in every day with the staff and faculty at the university.”
Sasha D. Robinson contributed to this story
