Giving back what is given to you: New full-ride scholarship program to benefit students and the Valley

Tuesday afternoon, UTRGV President Guy Bailey announced the Luminary Scholars program, a full-ride scholarship that will cover tuition and mandatory fees along with two years of room and board for eligible undergraduate students entering the university in Fall 2022.

It will also cover those same eligible students who choose to continue their education at UTRGV after receiving their bachelor’s degree.

However, students must be admitted to the university by Dec. 1 and enrolled in the fall semester immediately after graduating from high school. Students must also live on campus for their first two academic years and be a U.S. citizen, permanent resident or meet Texas residency requirements.

Selected students must also pledge to work in the Rio Grande Valley after graduating from UTRGV for the duration of time they spent studying at the university.

“In addition, the scholarship recipients, or Luminary Scholars, as they have been dubbed, will sign a pledge to work in the Valley for each year beyond their undergraduate education that is funded,” according to a news release. “That means a three-year graduate or professional program would require a three-year commitment to work in the Valley post-graduation.”

 Following the announcement, the application and its requirements were made available at utrgv.edu/luminary. 

Asked how many students will be awarded the scholarship per year, Griselda Castilla, UTRGV associate vice president for Strategic Enrollment, told The Rider the number of students will depend on the number of applicants the university receives. 

“Depending on the number of applicants, we’ll have to narrow down the pool,” Castilla said. “The semifinalists will actually be invited to an on-campus interview by a panel. For the first year, we may have … it’ll really just depend on the number of students, really, that apply. I would say maybe, like, 20, but it could be more. It just depends on the number of students that actually submit the application and that the panel selects them.”

She said it is possible for the number of students awarded this scholarship to increase per year as the Institutional Advancement office continues to raise funds for UTRGV students.

“I don’t know exactly what type of specific fundraising that they will do for this specific program, but I know they are always seeking donations from individual donors from agencies and other foundations that can contribute to our university to provide scholarships for our students,”Castilla said. 

She also said if students who receive this scholarship choose to stop their studies at the graduate level, the program will cover about $75,000 in total.

“Now, if they decide to go to medical school–so, they can get their bachelor’s with us, apply to medical and if they get in, we’ll cover medical school,” she said. “That’s valued at $137,000.”

Castilla said the scholarship is not restricted to any discipline, so any student coming into UTRGV from any major can apply and is eligible to be selected.

She clarified that students in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program are considered Texas residents for tuition purposes, so they will be able to apply for the Luminary Scholarship as well. However, international students are not eligible for the scholarship. 

The Rider spoke with Bailey after the news conference and asked him what kind of feedback the university is expecting from this “historic announcement.”

“We think the community will be very excited about it,” he said. “Because what this does–first of all, it offers our kids an opportunity to go all the way through their professional education without debt, and so, we think it’s something people will embrace.

“More important to the community, as a whole, it offers us a chance to begin keeping our best and brightest here and not sending them somewhere else. I mean, the Valley gets better when all of you stay here, spend your lives working, raising your families here and making this a better place. So that’s what we’re trying to do.”

The president said the university has been discussing this new scholarship program since it received the $40 million donation from philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett.

“As our student regent [Mimi Nguyen] mentioned, we presented this to the board of regents at the August board meeting and we have since been refining it,” Bailey said. “We wanted to wait until after the beginning of fall semester so that we didn’t create any confusion. We are just now, at the time that we are beginning, to recruit for next year so that’s the timing of the announcement.”

He said the university has another big announcement planned before the start of Thanksgiving break.

“Just think, Tuition Advantage even better,” Bailey said  after being asked what he could tell us about the planned announcement. “We’re always trying to expand that and make it better, and so we think we’re gonna be able to do it. A couple of things have to fall in place, but we’re constantly looking for ways to help our students get a really high-quality education without piling on debt.”

As of right now, the president said he wants to focus this scholarship on students from the Rio Grande Valley until the university has more funds to build up the program.

“We’ll do this for as much money as we have,” Bailey said. “But we are about to start a fundraising campaign to try to really build that $40 million up even more. We think we can get businesses and people throughout the community to invest in this.”

He said one person has also committed $2 million to the program.

“Your parents want you to stay here, right?” Bailey said. “The businesses here want you to stay here and so we’re gonna make this a great community. We’ll make it great by keeping you here.”

Asked if he had anything else to add regarding the Luminary Scholars Program, he said he does not think there is anything like it in the United States.

“And it is a major investment in our students, in our community,” Bailey said. “What we’re asking our students to do: When you graduate, just give back. Give back as was given to you. That’s all we ask.”