Lea '95, Cole, Cade and Loftus '93 Fitzwater

The Fitzwater scholarship gives preference to students who graduated from a U.S. high school and who plan to major in science, engineering, education or business. The interest from the $100,000 endowment will generate annual stipends to fund one of these prestigious scholarships.

In the past Regents’ Scholarships were created through funds set aside in the university's operating budget. To help offset budgetary constraints, endowed Regents' Scholarships are now being created through gifts to the Texas A&M Foundation from private donors. These endowed scholarships will allow students to benefit from the donor's gift in perpetuity since the principal is invested and only the interest earned is used to fund annual stipends. To date, the Hygeia Foundation and Houston A&M Club are the only other donors besides the Fitzwaters that have established endowed Regents’ Scholarships.

Former Texas A&M President Robert Gates initiated the Regents' Scholars Program in 2003 and students in the Class of 2004 were its first recipients. It was designed to help first-generation college students whose family income is less than $40,000 per year achieve their educational goals. Each year 600 scholarships are awarded to entering freshmen. Recipients receive up to $5,000 per year for four years and have the ability to add other scholarships up to the cost of attendance or demonstrated financial need.

To create an endowed Regents’ Scholarship of your own, contact Carl Jaedicke ’73, assistant vice president for development, at (800) 392-3310 or c-jaedicke@tamu.edu . To learn more about the program, visit scholarships.tamu.edu or financialaid.tamu.edu/regentblog. The Spring 2008 issue of Spirit magazine includes a guest column by Regents’ Scholar Malcolm Wilson ’11.

By Dorian Martin