As a freshman at A&M, Woods was eager to try out for the Aggie football team. Chemical engineering, however, is a notoriously tough major, and he had to prove to himself that he could successfully balance schoolwork and football. He made himself a promise: He would try out for the football team only if he made a 4.0 grade point average his first semester.

Woods accomplished that goal and still maintains a GPA well over 3.0. He reached another milestone his second semester when he walked onto the Texas A&M football team as a linebacker. While Woods' wall is now lined with academic, athletic and leadership awards, he remains focused on his chemical engineering education.

"I want to continue my education, get a doctorate and become a research scientist," he said. "I have a passion for learning, and that is definitely a field where you can experience lifelong learning. The SPIRIT scholarship is helping me out tremendously in terms of financing my education and reaching those goals."

The SPIRIT scholarship was created recently with a $1 million gift commitment from ConocoPhillips. The gift provides scholarship support, mentoring partnerships and internship opportunities for A&M geosciences, engineering and business students interested in energy business careers.

The ConocoPhillips gift brings Texas A&M closer to the $1 billion goal of its One Spirit One Vision fund-raising campaign. Thousands of individuals, corporations and foundations are supporting the campaign to help A&M move into the top tier of public universities while sustaining its distinctive spirit.

By Kara Socol