College Programs

Provide Scholarships for AgriLife Leaders

The College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is home to exceptional and gifted students who hold themselves to the highest standards of agricultural leadership. To sustain this tradition of excellence, the vice chancellor and dean of Texas A&M AgriLife have established the Dean's Excellence Scholarship, which provides high-achieving students within the college with substantial support to fund their undergraduate education. 

The Dean's Excellence Scholarship demonstrates the college leadership’s commitment to ensuring student success and recruiting the best and brightest future agricultural leaders to Aggieland. Student recipients can also connect with their donors to develop strong, meaningful relationships across generations.

You can create a Dean’s Excellence Scholarship endowment supporting one student with a $100,000 gift, rewarding their hard work and aiding their studies with $4,000 annually for four years.

To support Texas A&M AgriLife students through Dean's Excellence Scholarships, contact Jennifer Ann Scasta ’11.
 

Support First-Generation Trailblazers 

The College of Arts and Sciences welcomes and celebrates first-generation students—pioneers who are the first in their families to earn an undergraduate degree. These students are breaking new ground in their families through their academic journeys. Almost 30% of all arts and sciences majors are first-gen. 

The college is dedicated to creating networks that give first-gen students the chance to get the answers they need; providing opportunities for them to meet with and learn under first-gen college faculty, advisors, and alumni; and ensuring they know that the College of Arts and Sciences is their partner in their current academic and lifelong pursuits.

Endowed gifts start at $25,000 for four-year first-generation scholarships, while a one-time scholarship option will help fund a student’s education for one year.

To support first-generation Aggies in the College of Arts & Sciences, contact Debbie Hesse '85. 

Ensure Equal Opportunities for Aggies in the School of Architecture

To ensure greater opportunities for all its students, the School of Architecture is seeking support for various programs under its holistic Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiative. These programs strive to dismantle societal barriers to student success and ensure equal access to critical resources.

Major giving opportunities include: supporting the recruitment and retainment of construction science students at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center in McAllen, Texas; supporting our newly established NOMAS (National Organization of Minority Architect Students) chapter at Texas A&M to empower Aggie students of color; partnering with CityLab High School in Dallas to foster a healthy pipeline for students into disciplines that support built environments; and helping the Texas Freedom Colonies Project in its mission to secure the history and heritage of historically Black counties across the state.

To support a program within the School of Architecture’s Justice, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion initiative, contact Meredith Brown '00. 
 

Prepare Tomorrow’s City and County Government Leaders

For Bush School students, faculty and staff, President George H.W. Bush’s belief that “public service is a noble calling,” is more than a wise saying—it is a way of life. The City and County Governance Program will further put his words in action and consolidate the Bush School’s position as the recognized leader in public service education by preparing students  for the complex leadership and managerial challenges facing small towns, cities and counties across Texas.

The City and County Governance Program will create a pipeline of talented and well prepared leaders to serve Texas communities. The program is specifically designed to prepare students for careers in municipal and county government and expose them to opportunities to assume professionally fulfilling responsibilities.

Students in the program will build skill sets beyond basic management functions and further understand how resource prioritization, strategy, governance and policy can have a direct and positive effect on citizens and communities across Texas.

There are multiple opportunities to support the City and County Governance Program ranging from $25,000 to $10 million. These include graduate student fellowships, high-impact learning experiences for students, endowed faculty positions, and a significant opportunity to fully fund and enhance its impact in perpetuity through a $10 million endowed naming gift.

To support the City and County Governance Program, contact Ale Rainey '15.
 

Empower Literacy in Texas Students

A foundational part of many careers, reading is critical to maintaining good health, becoming financially literate and being a well-informed citizen. It is also a fundamental skill that prepares students for academic success in other reading-intensive subjects such as science and social studies. Yet many K-12 teachers struggle to help students understand written text, especially those who come from low-income households, have a learning disability or speak a language other than English.

In spring 2021, the School of Education and Human Development launched a major literacy initiative. This initiative will deepen the work the college already undertakes with striving elementary readers and writers (students who have very limited reading and writing skills), current teachers, future teachers and communities.

Endowed gifts can support the new Clinic for Advanced Literacy Studies, which includes elementary reading clinics, the Aggie STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math) Literacy Camp, and community outreach.

To help the School of Education and Human Development build the readers of tomorrow, contact Amy Hurley. You can also give online to advance the school’s literacy initiative.

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Foster Ethical Leadership Through the Hollingsworth Center

The Texas A&M University Corps of Cadets forms honorable, courageous, disciplined, selfless individuals with inspirational integrity. These cadets are trained and mentored into young men and women who will change today’s world and tomorrow’s generation. 

The Hollingsworth Center for Ethical Leadership guides commissioning and non-commissioning cadets through a curriculum devoted to scholastic excellence and leadership abilities with applications in future professional careers. Beyond the curriculum, the center provides resources to ensure endless opportunities for cadets such as internships, job placement, informational sessions and more.

While the Hollingsworth Center receives funding from an endowment established by Gen. Hollingsworth’s family, additional funds are needed as the Corps grows. Endowed gifts of $25,000 or more could fund corporate training opportunities and events, innovative classroom technologies, and invite more impactful speakers in industry, nonprofit and entrepreneurial sectors.

To help build ethical leaders in the Corps of Cadets through the Hollingsworth Center, contact Kelly Corcoran '95.
 

Create a Flagship Special Needs Dentistry Clinic

Routine dental care is critical to maintaining personal health and wellness, but for special needs patients and their families, finding a dentist capable of providing specialized care can be difficult. While children with special needs often receive dental care through the Medicaid/CHIP program, finding dental care becomes much more challenging after they age out of the program at 12 or 13.

Very few dentists have the training or the equipment to treat adult special needs patients and many routine procedures, such as a cleaning, require sedation. Special needs patients frequently have behavioral problems as well, and most dentists and dental hygienists are not prepared to manage this population’s oral health care needs.

To better serve these patients, the School of Dentistry is planning a facility to specifically care for patients with mild to major intellectual disorders and other disabilities. Housed in the college’s new clinical facility in Dallas, the Special Needs Dentistry Clinic will expand access to care for an underserved population. 

The clinic will also enhance a newly designed special needs dental care curriculum, therefore increasing the number of dentists and dental hygienists trained to deal with the special needs population’s unique oral health needs.

To support the Special Needs Dentistry Clinic, contact Ian Wilson '13.
 

Reward Exemplary Students with the Dean’s Scholars Award

In 2019, only 95 of 3,802 incoming freshman students received College of Engineering scholarships. More attractive scholarship packages are essential if the college is to recruit high-performing students moving forward.

The Dean’s Scholars Award program will provide much-needed competitive scholarships to high school seniors who have excelled academically and demonstrated outstanding leadership potential.

Dean’s Scholars are students who have exemplified excellence. These dynamic scholars will be prepared to embrace and advance transformative engineering initiatives today and into the future.

Dean’s Scholars will have exclusive opportunities to participate in annual meetings with the dean, lecture series, leadership development, and a mentorship program with select former students and senior engineering students. An endowed Dean’s Scholars Award can be created with a $100,000 gift, while a non-endowed reward can be created with a $16,000 gift or a four-year annual contribution of $4,000.

To establish a Dean’s Scholars Award, contact Jay Roberts ’05. You can also give online to the Dean’s Scholars Award fund in the college.

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Back the Next Generation of Cybersecurity Leaders

As cyberattacks become an increasingly significant threat to national and international security—with the power to cripple companies, communities and even nations—the Texas A&M University School of Law is preparing its students to be leaders in the cybersecurity industry.

The School of Law is helping students gain a legal and policy perspective on cybersecurity and an edge that distinguishes them from other professionals. Its career-relevant Master of Legal Studies, with a fast-growing concentration in cybersecurity and management, is built for non-lawyers who do not seek to practice law, but who want to combine up-to-date legal and policy training with the real-world skills needed to shape the cybersecurity landscape of the 21st century.

To support the Texas A&M University School of Law’s Cybersecurity & Privacy Program students, contact Myke Holt.
 

Build the Mays Business Education Complex

On a worldwide basis, business schools compete to attract the best students, faculty and corporate partners. Facilities built on a belief that continuous innovation is foundational to superior educational experiences are critical to attracting these groups.

Mays Business School also recognizes the necessity of having future-oriented facilities to support educating students and conducting world-class research.

Because of this, Mays is committed to designing and building the Business Education Complex (BEC). An expansion of the school’s current facilities, the BEC will support Mays’ desire to engage current and former students, faculty and corporate partners in a series of lifelong learning experiences.

Plans for the BEC include a striking grand atrium, a café to encourage “spontaneous collaborations” among all parties, and ample work and study spaces to promote connectivity and creativity.

Currently, the schedule calls for completing the BEC in late 2024 or early 2025. To support the BEC project, Mays Business School seeks $37 million in private gifts. Texas A&M and Mays Business School are confident that financial resources invested in the BEC will yield substantial educational dividends to all Mays’ students and other groups interested in lifelong learning opportunities.

To support the Business Education Complex’s construction, contact True Brown. You can also give a gift to the complex online.

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Build a Leading Military Medicine Program

Through its unique relationship with U.S. military academies and veteran populations, the School of Medicine is dedicated to improving the lives of military service members and their families.

The military medicine department is the cornerstone of the college’s focus on serving those who have served our country.

Within this area of emphasis, the college will focus on recruiting U.S. military veteran students, educating medical providers for armed forces service, partnering with military installations for training, and conducting military health research.

Former students and partners can help the program achieve its vision of being the premier military medicine leader in education, research and innovation by creating an endowed department chair, endowed professorship, or an instructional program endowment to develop and sustain an advanced curriculum.

To help the School of Medicine establish its military medicine department as a nationally preeminent program, contact David Boggan ’79.
 

Transform Healthcare…Support Aggie Nurses

Texas, like the rest of the nation, faces a serious nursing shortage due to an aging population, workforce attrition, complex care needs, and nursing faculty shortages. By the year 2030, the projected demand for nurses in Texas will exceed the supply by 20%, leaving a deficit of nearly 60,000 nurses. Creating a sustainable pipeline of diverse nursing students and future nurse leaders is key to meeting healthcare challenges that face the state, nation, and world.

The Texas A&M School of Nursing is dedicated to educating and producing nurses prepared to lead within the profession while advancing nursing research, improving patient outcomes, and increasing outreach initiatives to positively impact the healthcare landscape. Graduates learn both clinical and leadership skills, which empowers them to lead interdisciplinary care teams, improve care delivery systems, and become innovative practitioners adept at tackling complex problems and challenges.

Building a top-ranked nursing school requires exceptional faculty and outstanding students. Endowed Chairs, Professorships, Lectureships, and Scholarship support allow the School of Nursing to recruit world-class faculty and high-achieving students to its undergraduate and graduate programs.

To create a chair, professorship or scholarship in the School of Nursing, contact Patty Rabel ’80.
 

Aggie Student Pharmacists’ Initiative for Recruitment, Retention and Education

The Aggie Student Pharmacists’ Initiative for Recruitment, Retention and Education (ASPIR²E) program at the Texas A&M University Irma Lerma Rangel School of Pharmacy is an exceptional resource for pre-pharmacy students and matriculated Aggie student pharmacists.

Established in June 2018 with a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s Minority Health Research and Education Grant Program, the program helps future and current student pharmacists achieve academic success.

Diverse students such as underrepresented minority, first-generation and nontraditional students are especially encouraged to participate, as the school’s mission includes developing and inspiring a diverse group of future leaders in pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical sciences. So far, the program has been tremendously effective in recruiting and retaining diverse future student pharmacists, growing from 23 participants in 2018 to 96 participants in 2021, many of whom hail from South Texas communities.

Today, the school seeks scholarships for deserving and exceptional students in the ASPIR²E program. An investment in future pharmacists is an investment in better quality of life for our communities.

To help build the robust pharmacy workforce for tomorrow by creating a scholarship, contact Karen Slater ’88.

Attract and Retain World-Class Public Health Faculty and Students

During the COVID-19 pandemic, School of Public Health faculty trained future public health professionals while demonstrating measured leadership in providing Texans—and the rest of the world—up-to-date guidance on keeping themselves and their families safe.

But beyond their pandemic response, Aggie public health faculty members have worked tirelessly to develop impactful interventions in local, state, national and global health populations. As the college strives to improve and protect community health and well-being, it will need to attract and retain the best of the best to maintain its high standards of education and service.

Today, the college is seeking department chairs and professorships in healthy aging, public health policy, occupational health and public health preparedness. There are additional opportunities to create scholarships that can help recruit the best and brightest public health students as well.

To create a department chair, professorship or student scholarship in the School of Public Health, contact Karen Slater ’88.
 

Support Aggies’ Mental Health

In support of Texas A&M’s mission and the Division of Student Affairs, Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) exists to advance student development and academic success by providing personalized and evidence-based mental health care to all Aggies. CAPS services include individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, and career counseling among various online resources, trainings and workshops for the campus community.

CAPS is committed to enriching student growth and development through compassion, empowerment, advocacy, and empathy. With impactful programing like HelpLine—an after-hours mental health service available to all Aggies—CAPS strives to be a nationally recognized leader in college mental health through outstanding prevention, education and counseling services.

This department requires generous funding to reach its long-term goals. A contribution to the CAPS Excellence Fund, the Houston A&M Mothers’ Club HelpLine Endowment and other giving opportunities within CAPS can provide life-changing services to Aggies in need.

To support mental health resources for Aggie students, contact David Wilkinson '87. You can also support CAPS with an online gift.

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Save Endangered Kemp’s Ridley Sea Turtles

The Gulf of Mexico is home to five of the world’s seven species of sea turtles: Kemp’s ridley, green, loggerhead, hawksbill and leatherback sea turtles. All species are threatened or endangered. Every year, tens of thousands of young hatchlings emerge from their nests and set off toward their new life in the ocean. Unfortunately, only 10% live to see adulthood.

The Upper Texas Coast needs a new sea turtle rehabilitation facility, and Texas A&M University at Galveston is poised to help. The proposed solution will consist of two parts: the Sea Turtle Hospital & Educational Outreach Center, a facility that will provide shelter and medical help to injured turtles and educate the public about the challenges facing our marine environment; and the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research, a consortium that aims to restore sea turtle populations in Texas.

To support the Upper Texas Coast Sea Turtle Hospital & Educational Outreach Center or the Gulf Center for Sea Turtle Research, contact Anna Hyatt. You can also give online to support the center’s construction.

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Support Knowledge and Culture Through Collections

The University Libraries supports the 17 academic colleges and schools at Texas A&M by offering a rich collection of information resources. From thermodynamics to Babylonian clay tablets, the Libraries inspires researchers by acquiring collections that support all disciplines.

With more than six million volumes and electronic resources, the Texas A&M Libraries is an indispensable hub of discovery, learning and creativity. Our collections fuel groundbreaking research that has environmental, cultural and societal impact. The cost of these scholarly resources dramatically increases each year due to materials inflation, meaning our annual budget is stretched to the limit. Without extra support, some of these research items could be cut.

To support the general research collection, please contribute to the Evans Mutual Endowment Fund. To support our special collections, including rare books and manuscripts, please contribute to the Cushing Library Endowment.

To support general or special collections at the University Libraries, contact Adelle Hedleston ’88.
 

Support Aggie Veterans

The following programs in the Don & Ellie Knauss Veteran Resource and Support Center can benefit from donor support:

1. Student Veteran Leader Development & Engagement

This initiative identifies and creates professional development opportunities to maximize the unique strengths that veterans bring to campus. Throughout the professional development process, student veteran leaders are guided by VRSC staff and programs to significantly increase peer engagement. Similar to MSC leadership programs, donors provide student veteran leaders with access to tailored professional development opportunities that facilitate enhanced engagement and transition success among the broader student veteran population.

2. Student Aggie Veteran Enhancement (SAVE) Fund

This fund awards donor-provided financial assistance in a time of crisis or unusual circumstances. The goal of the program is to keep student veterans enrolled at Texas A&M when completion of their education is threatened by financial circumstances beyond their control. The “Special Provisions” (SAVE-SP) Fund is used to reduce unmanageable childcare financial challenges.

3. “Veteran Designated” Academic Course Sections

Veteran designated academic sections are an established national best practice that facilitate student veteran transitions and learning communities. Offering these sections provides a unique opportunity for student veterans and faculty to interact in a small classroom setting and provides a learning experience that supports student veteran learning styles.

4. Veteran Aggie Leaders for Outreach, Research & Resources

Also called VALOR², this outreach program is peer-led and engages student veterans to assess and align critical resource needs that will facilitate academic, financial, personal and career success during the transitions to, through and beyond Texas A&M. Certified student veteran peer leaders provide tailored opportunities for students to network and connect with key resources (i.e., Academic Success Center, Scholarships and Financial Aid, Career Center, VA resources and many others).

5. Vet Camp

Vet Camp is an in-depth orientation program conducted prior to the start of classes that provides new student veterans with more than 35 academic, campus and local resources to ensure a successful transition to Texas A&M. A gift to this program will help student veterans gain early access to critical resources and networking connections that facilitate success.

6. Veteran Academic Academy

Veteran Academic Academy (a collaborative effort conducted by the Academic Success Center) is a half-day workshop that provides instruction and activities to assist with the transition from military training/education and community college/online coursework to the academic rigor of Texas A&M. This workshop proactively addresses both academic skills and cultural/social transitions.

7. First-Generation Veteran Leadership Scholars

In collaboration with the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, this year-long comprehensive program is uniquely designed to increase knowledge and associated skills of first-generation veterans in the attributes necessary to be a successful college student. This cohort approach also connects them with a network of campus resources, other Texas A&M veterans, faculty and staff.

8. Aggie SHIELDS

This unique program supports student veterans, dependents and survivors through a textbook lending library. A gift to this student-run program will support the collection of these books and reduce the financial burden of ever-increasing textbook costs.

9. Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans (EBV)

This program is hosted by the McFerrin Center for Entrepreneurship in Mays Business School. Texas A&M is one of eight campuses in the EBV Consortium. This bootcamp is designed to leverage the skills, resources and infrastructure of higher education to offer cutting-edge, experiential training in entrepreneurship and small business management to post-9/11 veterans.

10. Student Veteran Recognition

This initiative recognizes student veterans for their accomplishments and highlights the campus’s appreciation for their service and sacrifice. The VRSC has three primary methods to recognize student veterans: Student Veteran of the Semester, veteran graduation cords and Military Appreciation game day programs.

11. Veterans Coaching Program (VCP)

Run out of the McFerrin-Thornton Coaching Academy, the VCP is designed to facilitate, guide and collaborate with veterans transitioning from military service to careers in the coaching and teaching industry. Gifts to this program will help student veterans offset the cost of attendance and ensure that uniquely-qualified staff remain in place.

12. Aggie Veteran Network (AVN)

The AVN connects current, former and prospective student veterans (and their families) with resources that facilitate transition, inclusion and academic success on and off campus. Hosted through a closed LinkedIn group, this unique network exponentially increases the connections to the organizations providing, or willing to provide, resources and support to our students and link military-affiliated students with high-impact opportunities to support each other.

To support any of these programs in the Don & Ellie Knauss Veteran Resource and Support Center, contact David Bacot '90. 

Provide a New Facility for Aggie Veterinarians

For nearly four decades in their current facilities, veterinarians in the School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences have provided the best care for small animals and educated thousands of future veterinarians. In that time, caseloads have grown, but the facility has not. In 1983, the college treated 7,000 cases. By 2021, that number had grown to 23,000 plus.

Every day, Aggie students, faculty and staff provide exemplary care and conduct research that benefits animals and humans alike, despite being in a facility that does not mirror the quality of care provided. The college currently offers 16 services in 84,000 square feet (nearly half the footprint of its peer institutions).

The college seeks to build a hospital that not only considers its beloved patients but also honors its collaborative partnerships and paves the way for the next generation of veterinarians who will one day walk its halls. With the addition of a 21st century hospital facility to its campus, Texas A&M will be more enticing to the best and brightest students and the most innovative faculty in veterinary medicine.

To support construction of the School of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences’ Next-Generation Small Animal Teaching Hospital, contact Larry Walker ’97. You can also give a gift to support construction online.

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