$1.79 million grant to provide full tuition for 15 Latino, first-gen Texas State students

A $1.79 million grant from the Hector and Gloria López Foundation will cover tuition, fees and other costs for 15 first-generation, Latino students at Texas State University for five years. 

Starting this fall semester, the 15 incoming students who are selected for the grant will have access to mentorships, internships, study abroad opportunities, housing and more, on top of having their tuition and fees covered. Texas State announced the grant at an on-campus event Monday and was the third university to receive funding for the López Scholar Program this year. 

Working to increase education equity for Latino students in Texas, the foundation plans to provide five universities with grants to assist first-generation students. Last week, the University of Texas at San Antonio and St. Edward’s University each announced having received over $2 million from the foundation for similar programs. In 2022, the University of Texas at El Paso and UT-San Antonio received the first grants for the López Scholar Program.

Texas State and other participating universities were selected based on their history of supporting Latino and first-generation students, said Sergio Rodríguez, the foundation’s CEO and nephew of Hector and Gloria López.

First-generation students make up 45% of Texas State’s student population, said Cynthia Hernandez, the university's vice president for student success. Texas State is designated as a Hispanic serving institution with more than 40% of the university’s students identifying as Hispanic or Latino. 

“We actually look like Texas,” Hernadez said. “Our student body reflects our rich diversity of our great state.”

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board ranked Texas State first in the state for awarding degrees to at-risk students, according to a news release. 

“It's not enough to just enroll our students here. But it is our commitment to provide conditions that will allow them to graduate from Texas State and achieve post-graduation,” Hernandez said. 

The latest U.S. Census data shows 70% of non-Hispanic white Texans have a college degree, while only 40% of Latinos in Texas hold a degree despite the state having the second-largest Latino population in the country, Rodríguez said. 

For the state to reach the goal of 60% of working Texans holding some post-secondary credential of value by 2030, at least 285,000 Latinos must complete a degree or certificate program each year, according to a news release. 

In 2021, fewer than 132,000 Latinos completed a degree or certificate, and only 52,011 were bachelor’s degrees, Rodríguez said. 

"We are we are way behind," Rodríguez said. "We know we have to do better than that in Texas, and Hispanic serving institutions and universities are leading the way."

No application, minimum GPA or SAT/ACT scores are required for the López Scholar Program. Instead, the 15 students will be randomly selected from a pool of prospects who meet the program's criteria and applied to Texas State. Students who will be considered must be Hispanic, demonstrate financial need, be the first person in their family to attend college and have lived or graduated from a high school in El Paso, Austin, San Antonio or communities in South Texas or the Rio Grande Valley.

“The fact that they made it this far as a first-generation student, that’s the merit component,” Rodríguez said. 

“We look forward to this partnership with Texas State University and Hector and Gloria’s legacy and our joint commitment to doing our part to help Latino students across the stage and accept their diplomas, creating opportunities for economic growth and making Texas a better place to live,” Rodríguez said.