The Texas A&M Foundation will celebrate 50 years of their most prestigious academic merit scholarship in Reed Arena on Sept. 1.
The President’s Endowed Scholarship (PES) program will bring together 1,500 donors, outstanding students and their families to the main celebration, in addition to 271 new inductees to a separate ceremony in the morning.
The PES program was created in 1968 to attract National Merit Scholars, valedictorians and salutatorians to Texas A&M, according to campus fundraiser and former senior executive for development in A&M’s office of the president Dr. Robert Walker, Class of 1958. Walker generated the fundraising capital for the PES when it first began and said it was an exciting challenge.
“Without a doubt, the President’s Endowed Scholarship had the greatest impact on the university’s ability to recruit and retain academically superior students who are pursued by other top universities, more so than any other program we’ve had at Texas A&M,” Walker said.
Today, A&M ranks sixth in the nation for public enrollment of National Merit Scholars. During the last 50 years, income from these endowments has supported over 7,000 top undergraduate students.
“The President’s Endowed Scholarship program has proved highly successful and has grown to 1,079 scholarships today,” said Tyson Voelkel, president of the Texas A&M Foundation. “This anniversary celebration provides us with an opportunity to unite donors and students and reflect on the program’s past five decades of bringing the brightest minds to study at Texas A&M. Many PES scholars have gone on to make significant impacts in their communities and in our state, nation and world.”
For computer science senior Tate Banks, the PES program was what enabled him to become an Aggie.
“The day I found out I had received a PES, everything changed,” Banks said. “Receiving a scholarship of this magnitude has been an incredible blessing in my college education. The PES program definitely sends a message that the university prioritizes and rewards being a good student.”