JAVELINA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION AND TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY-KINGSVILLE FOUNDATION PARTNER TO ENDOW ALUMNI FUND FOR EXCELLENCE
By Elaine Barnes
Coordinator, Alumni and Donor Communications
Office of Alumni Services and Giving
361.593.4839
Over several decades, Javelina Alumni have earnestly donated to the Alumni Fund for Excellence. Because of that astounding support, the Javelina Alumni Association and the Texas A&M University-Kingsville Foundation have partnered together to guarantee student support, in perpetuity, by endowing those funds.
The Alumni Fund for Excellence empowers each college within Texas A&M University-Kingsville to select their most successful students for consideration for the scholarship. Each awardee is recommended by the dean of their respective college due to their academic success, university involvement, community service and other exemplary qualities. The scholarships are awarded to both undergraduate and graduate students of our university.
These scholarships not only relieve some of the burden and financial pressure of a college education but also solidifies and fosters a lasting relationship between alumni and current Javelinas.
The 2019-2020 academic year named five recipients of scholarships from the Alumni Fund for Excellence: Francisco Fernandez, Lori Massey, Elmer Whiddon, Lauren Yaklin and Amanda Yuraitis.
“This scholarship means everything to me. My mother was widowed and because of scholarships, she hasn’t had to pay a penny toward my education,” relayed Massey. It has allowed her to focus on becoming more involved on campus, as well, and giving back to the community. “I’m an officer for the Range and Wildlife Society but I’m also involved in Operation Orphans which allows me to take young girls hunting for the first time and experience that with them.”
And for Fernandez, a graduate student, the scholarship has provided the means to pursue his dream career. “It has meant quite a lot. It allowed me to take the GRE and since taking that GRE, I got accepted into a fully-funded Ph.D. program,” he stated. “It’s also validation. I’ve been working a lot with the university and done a lot of research work, and I feel honored to be recognized for it.”
Yaklin, another graduate student nearing completion of her degree expressed similar sentiments. “The community [of Texas A&M University-Kingsville] is really close knit … and there’s just such a strong network between everybody on campus, and that’s probably my favorite part about going to school here – everyone is so willing to help out another Javelina.”
To learn more about the Alumni Fund for Excellence, or to learn how you can create a scholarship that impacts Javelinas for generations to come, please visit our website here or contact us at 361.593.4191.