The Family Association and the Family Engagement office on campus have joined together to make sure students still have a jolly good Christmas despite the pandemic.
Student Angel Tree is a program where students can submit a form and have alumni sponsor them for Christmas. The only requirement is that you have to be a Texas A&M University-San Antonio student.
Jacinta Flores, secretary/treasurer for the Family Association, broke down the process on how to apply to be sponsored.
“We just have this one-page form that we ask (students) to fill out and it tells us a little bit about themselves and how to contact them,” Flores said. “We hand over the information to a sponsor and the sponsor goes out and gets a gift for them.”
The form asks for the student’s name, phone number, Jaguar email and gifts they would like to receive.
“Any information that is given to us from a student is confidential,” Flores said. “The sponsor does not see who it is, they just get a portion of what the (students) are looking for.”
Dr. Reba Sims, family coordinator for the Family Engagement office and adviser for the Family Association, added that the sponsors are A&M-San Antonio alumni.
“The sponsors are also alumni … and they are wanting to give back to the current students in many ways, but this being one of them,” Sims said.
Both Sims and Flores developed this program over a month ago to make sure students and families have a smooth Christmas season, especially since the coronavirus has affected some people.
“With COVID going around, it not just affected the students, it impacted the family of the students,” Flores said. “Their Christmas might look a little different this year and we just want them to know that we are there for them.”
There are 30 sponsors and 15 students have signed up.
“My favorite part so far is the overwhelming of response we have gotten from the community, faculty, alumni and other parents that want to step up and help,” Flores said.
The program will accept any donations. You do not have to be a sponsor to donate gifts for a student.
“Anyone who wants to donate something we will take it, we are not saying no,” Flores said. “We will just find a way to purpose it.”
Their hope is for this program to double in size by next Christmas and have more students sign up to be a part of it.
“A sense of belonging for a student is very important … the gift that they receive could be the one thing that brightens them up.” Sims said.
The deadline to sign up is Friday, Nov. 13th. Students can find a hard copy of the form in Patriots’ Casa on the first floor or email family@tamusa.edu or call 210-784-1452. Students can email the forms to family@tamusa.
