“Aggie Pals: Go Write To College”

Scholarships & Financial Aid has announced a pilot program between Texas A&M and Bertram Elementary School in Burnet, Texas. The new program, “Aggie Pals: Go Write To College,” aims to encourage fourth and fifth grade first-generation students to pursue higher education.

Tanya Lyons, a teacher at Bertram Elementary School, contacted Texas A&M requesting the creation of a pen pal program between her students and current Texas Aggies. The Regents’ Scholars Program staff created and launched the program in the fall 2009. Highly involved sophomores and juniors in the Regents’ Scholars Program were asked to serve as Aggie Pals to thirty-six handpicked elementary students. As current first-generation college students at Texas A&M University, Aggie Pals are able to relay their own success stories to the elementary students as real inspiration to further promote the students’ dreams to go to college.

The fourth and fifth graders were truly excited about this program. After receiving the first package which included the first batch of letters from the Aggie Pals as well as a bundle of A&M goodies, Lyons stated that the students felt that it was an “honor and privilege” to participate in this pilot program.

After the arrival of the first letters, Lyons stated that the program “opened some great dialogue for what [the students] ‘could do’ at college.” She also stated that it has made a personal impact on her as a teacher and that the program reminded her of “the ‘little things’ that really make a difference in a child’s life.”

Aggie Pals will continue to write to their pen pals at Bertram Elementary School until the end of the academic year. The Regents’ Scholars Program is also coordinating a campus trip in April for the elementary students.

The Regents’ Scholars Program was launched in December 2003 by Robert M. Gates. It awards first-generation freshman whose family income is less than or equal to $40,000 up to $5,000 per year for up to four years.