Gateway to Dreams

As a young girl, Sydney Van Wyk ’13 dreamed of singing country music standards on the storied stage of Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. Attending Texas A&M with the support of a Regents’ Scholarship has given Van Wyk a new dream ... and the education she needs to achieve it.

“This scholarship is more than a financial contribution,” said Van Wyk. “It’s a gateway to a new me.”

Growing up in Harlingen in the Rio Grande Valley, Van Wyk devoted herself to horses, including competitive barrel racing. “As long as I can remember, I’ve been on the back of a horse. When things were hard, I could go out in the pasture and escape.”

Her parents, who divorced when she was a youngster, believed in higher education even though they never completed their degrees. “They always inspired me and told me they wanted me to go to college,” she said. Their financial situations led Van Wyk to take responsibility for financing her college education with scholarships and a job managing a herd of miniature donkeys, miniature horses and stock horses on a ranch.

Van Wyk decided to major in agriculture leadership instead of music while at Texas A&M. “I had a hard time seeing myself performing until I was 60, combined with the realization that I am most likely going to be the type of person who will never be able to truly retire,” she said.  “A non-music major gave me a back-up plan.”

As a freshman at A&M, she discovered a passion after reading Hope Rising by Kim Meeder. The book describes the Oregon ranch that Meeder and her husband established to assist children and horses who have suffered abuse and neglect.

The book gave rise to a new dream. “Halfway through the book, a light bulb went off and I realized this is what I want for my life and those in it,” Van Wyk said. “Singing gives me such joy, but I’ve learned that helping one person take a step toward a productive, promising future could give me more enjoyment than singing in front of thousands at the Grand Ole Opry.”

Valley Kids Get a Break

Lee Richards ’56, who established her Hygeia Foundation scholarship as a trustee for that organization, remembers taking an entrance test for admission to Texas A&M. “I went to talk to this counselor about the results,” the Harlingen resident said. “He started the conversation politely, but then told me that I wouldn’t make it at Texas A&M with my ability level.”

Despite the counselor’s verdict, Richards persevered. “He didn’t influence me to believe that I wasn’t going to succeed. I knew I was going to make it at Texas A&M,” said Richards, who hailed from an Aggie family. His father, Harvey ’27, and Uncle John ’30 also worked at Hygeia Dairy; its Hygeia Foundation was started in 1954 and funded by the dairy, whose majority ownership later was held by the Richards family.

Since then Richards has influenced many young people — in many ways — to reach for their college dreams.

In 1990, he studied the Texas Scholars program, which encourages high school students to complete classes that will prepare them for college, and helped bring it to Harlingen. He was instrumental in implementing the Harlingen Area Educational Foundation to start the Texas Scholars program. Richards still works with that foundation and its New Directions program, also created in the 1990s, both of which focus on reducing the dropout rate by helping students understand that education is vital to their futures and by teaching the skills they need to succeed in high school.

At Texas A&M, he helps aspiring Aggies from Harlingen through four Regents’ Scholarships, including Van Wyk’s. The Hygeia Foundation, which also funded an academic-based President’s Endowed Scholarship, will terminate when all of the Regents’ Scholarships are fully funded. “There are a lot of people in this area who can’t afford to send their children to college, and many students don’t have the grades to get academic scholarships,” Richards said. “The Regents’ Scholarship fills this gap.”

Richards believes the Hygeia Foundation Regents’ Scholarships will ultimately benefit both the recipient and the Harlingen community. “I put emphasis on education because I think it’s the best way to help people become qualified for life’s challenges,” he said.  “A lot of these kids will come back and become the leaders in area businesses and in our community.”

Hand Me the Keys

After nine years on the Harlingen Independent School District Board of Trustees, Frank Boggus ’49 — who established an endowed Regents’ Scholarship in 2008 — understands the challenges that Rio Grande Valley students face in seeking higher education.

“We have too many young people who are out there ready to do great things but can’t afford a college education,” said Boggus, CEO and chairman of Boggus Ford Lincoln Mercury in Harlingen. “I’m at the age and time in my life when I can create a scholarship that will do some good. And a scholarship to Texas A&M is the way to do it.”

Daniel Carmona ’12, recipient of the Boggus scholarship, majors in physics. “I want to earn my doctorate and then work for the government researching new sources of energy or engineering new types of air travel,” he said.

Carmona, who also hails from Harlingen, considered other colleges, but eventually settled on Texas A&M. “I liked that they were really big on engineering and science,” he said. “The Regents’ Scholarship has helped a lot. We’re not too wealthy. Now my mom doesn’t have to worry about paying for tuition and covering my personal needs and expenses.”

Regents’ Scholars such as Carmona and Van Wyk look forward to stepping into leadership roles and eventually providing financial support for a future generation of Aggies.

“When you give an opportunity to someone as huge as attending Texas A&M on scholarship, you’re handing them a set of keys to doors that they wouldn’t have had the opportunity to open,” Van Wyk said. “I want to spread that hope, that chance one day.”

How Regents’ Scholarships Help Aggies

When he was university president in 2003, Dr. Robert Gates established Regents’ Scholarships to help Texas A&M students become the first generations in their family to earn college degrees.

A $100,000 gift to the Texas A&M Foundation can establish an endowed Regents’ Scholarship that will permanently provide one student at a time with an annual scholarship of more than $4,000 per year for four years. (The annual stipend varies based on an investment payout rate approved by the Foundation’s board of trustees.) Donors — whether individuals, corporations, foundations, A&M clubs or other organizations — may name scholarships in memory or in honor of a person, class or organization.

About 700 freshmen and about 1,700 upperclassmen receive annual financial support from Regents’ Scholarships. Since its inception, the Regents’ Scholars Program has assisted 3,595 students. Regents’ Scholars have a 90 percent student retention rate at A&M, thanks in part to a structured academic and social assistance program. Regents’ Scholars must live on campus during their freshman year, participate in a learning community, and attend an orientation designed by sophomore, junior and senior Regents’ Scholars.

The Regents’ Scholars Program originally was funded through the university’s operating budget. Now Regents’ Scholarships are supported by endowments established through and held by the Texas A&M Foundation.

By Dorian Martin

Texas A&M Foundation 
The Texas A&M Foundation is a nonprofit organization that solicits and manages investments in academics and leadership programs to enhance Texas A&M’s capability to be among the best universities. 

You can support scholarship programs with a gift of an endowment to the Texas A&M Foundation. For additional information about how to support or establish a scholarship, contact Marcy Ullmann ’86 with the Foundation at (800) 392-3310, (979) 845-6383 or mullmann@txamfoundation.com.