$1 Million Grant to Restore College Dreams Once Washed Away by Harvey

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas – Through a $1 million grant from the State of Qatar via the Qatar Harvey Fund and the Rebuild Texas Fund, scholarships are now available to Hurricane Harvey-impacted students at five campuses within the Texas A&M University System, including Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi. The generous grant will help students whose lives were upended by Hurricane Harvey with assistance for tuition, fees, books, living expenses and even emergency expenses. The grant money will be available beginning in fall 2019.

“We’re so proud that we were able to assist our Harvey-affected students with the Harvey Call Center, Izzy’s Food Pantry, smaller grants, and other individualized assistance for students, but this new grant will help students whose lives were upended by Hurricane Harvey and, for whatever reason, slipped through the existing safety net on our campus,” said Dr. Don Albrecht, Vice President for Student Engagement and Success at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi.

In fall 2017, as Hurricane Harvey hit and lingered over Texas, 8,862 students, from what were later identified as the impacted counties, enrolled at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. Classes were delayed and faculty and staff were mobilized to meet the needs of struggling students. Most students did return to the University, but many withdrew and even those who did return continued to struggle with personal and financial challenges preventing their success. Many of the impacted students were from economically disadvantaged environments, further complicating their recovery.

“This grant helps us demonstrate our commitment to every student’s success by helping those students who continue to be impacted by the hurricane,” said Albrecht. “We still hear of students and their families who have lost so much, yet see that achieving a college degree is possible only with some extra assistance. This grant can help us close the gaps they are living with today.  I am so grateful for this program and can’t wait to see these proud Islanders cross the stage at graduation.”

Funding for the grant was provided by the State of Qatar through its Qatar Harvey Fund, a $30 million fund established in 2017 for the long-term recovery of southeast Texas. The funding will be granted through a partnership between the Qatar Harvey Fund and the Rebuild Texas Fund. The Rebuild Texas Fund, a collaborative project of the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation and the OneStar Foundation, was created to support the rebuilding of Texas communities hit hard by Hurricane Harvey.

“Qatar and Texas have many long-standing ties, including a Texas A&M campus in Qatar that has awarded some 900 engineering degrees over more than a dozen years,” said His Excellency Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al-Thani, Qatar’s Ambassador to the U.S. “When we saw the devastation from Hurricane Harvey, we created the Qatar Harvey Fund to help our friends in Texas recover from the storm. We are proud to once again partner with the Rebuild Texas Fund to support Texas students impacted by Hurricane Harvey.”

John Sharp, Chancellor of the Texas A&M System, said the grant will give deserving students a second chance at their college dreams.

“The Texas A&M University System is very thankful for this grant,” Sharp said. “This money will help rebuild the future for hundreds of deserving Texans whose dreams of obtaining a degree were rained on by Harvey.”

To be eligible for assistance, beneficiaries must be:

• A current student impacted by Hurricane Harvey and enrolled in one of the five included A&M System universities (Texas A&M University, Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Texas A&M University at Galveston, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, Prairie View A&M University);
• Or, be a student who withdrew from one of these universities as a result of Hurricane Harvey and has not yet reenrolled;
• Or, be a student who was admitted to one of these universities beginning in fall 2017 but did not attend because of Harvey. Students must also have had a minimum cumulative grade point average of 2.0 for undergraduate and 3.0 for graduate and doctoral students, if currently enrolled.
• The applicant must also be able to demonstrate, with data or anecdotally, the effect of Harvey on their financial situation.

For more information

At Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, student eligibility, application review, and scholarship administration will be administered by the Division of Student Engagement and Success. Visit http://harveyhelp.tamucc.edu/ or email harveyhelp@tamucc.edu to learn more or apply.