Driven to make higher education financially possible for every qualified student, the University of St. Thomas-Houston is visiting all HISD high schools and presenting to counselors and students. Their well-received message is about UST programs designed to help students succeed without the financial debt generally associated with college. These are programs like Rising Stars, the St. Thomas Promise, the UST Hometown Heroes scholarship, and our new partnership with TheDream.us to help undocumented students secure financial aid opportunities at UST. 

A Free UST Education for Qualified Students

So far, Rising Stars Director Dan Garcia and Admissions Counselors Sol Herrera and Caroline Berrios have taken their good news to 45 HISD schools. The schools are interested to hear that the St. Thomas Promise provides a free UST education to students with a family income of $50,000 or less and a GPA of 3.4 or higher.

Response Exceeding Goals

Because HISD has so many bright and talented students who qualify for the program, response to the outreach has exceeded goals.

“Our original goal was to recruit 200 HISD students who qualified for the St. Thomas Promise,” Garcia said. “But we have already received 398 applications from HISD, KIPP and YES Prep, with 146 applications approved. So, with numbers like these, we are looking to go beyond our projection and give this opportunity to as many students as possible.”

As UST continues to get the word out to area high schools, students and their counselors recognize the opportunity for eligible students to get an excellent UST education at no cost and change their lives and financial situations.