TCU attracts Fort Worth ISD grads,
By Carmen Castro
Staff Reporter

Dora Suarez’s face could be seen all over Fort Worth last spring.

As part of a mass TCU billboard campaign, her picture ran with the slogan “Learning to Share,” featured in English and Spanish.

“TCU was my dream school,” Suarez said.

Wednesday will be four months since Dora Suarez graduated from TCU with her master’s degree in secondary education and a Spanish bachelor’s degree. Now, Suarez, a FWISD graduate, is teaching at her high school alma mater, Amon Carter-Riverside.

“It’s a lot of fun now being back at Carter because the teachers, counselors and other administrators know me already. It actually feels real good,” Suarez said.

TCU continues to strengthen its ties with the Fort Worth Independent School District by bringing more district graduates into the university, said Cornell Thomas, special assistant to the chancellor for diversity and community affairs.

Thomas said TCU works hard to attract local FWISD graduates through the Community Scholar Program. The program has made TCU an option for graduates of specific local high schools whom, in the past, had very few filed admission applications, Thomas said.

Community Scholars are selected based on the student’s high school academic record and their community involvement, he said.

This spring, nine out 12 scholars from the first class will graduate, Thomas said. The other three will not graduate until 2004 because of their decision to change majors, he said.

There are two FWISD high school graduate award recipients this fall, cosponsored with the Hispanic Women’s Network and the Absolute Xcellence mentoring programs, that bring local high school and college students together, Thomas said. Initially, these partnerships were set up with the idea that the Absolute Xcellence recipient would be male and the Hispanic Women’s Network recipient would be female, but this year both recipients are female, he said.

Another avenue for FWISD high school graduates is the Upward Bound Program, which takes the students on monthly university visits and assists the students through the college application process. An example is Brittany Conley, a freshman radio-TV-film major, who has been on TCU’s campus since her high school days at Polytechnic High School.

“Upward Bound encouraged me to apply to TCU and even the Community Scholar Program,” Conley said. “I decided on TCU through Upward Bound and because of the financial aid package offered to me.”

Margaret Faust, director of the Upward Bound Program at TCU, said the ultimate goal of any student is for them to attend a university.

“Coming into the program, Brittany was bashful as her mother did most of the talking for her during her interview,” Faust said. “She was sort of shy and naive and needed a little more cultural exposure.”

During their high school years, Upward Bound guides students from the ACT and SAT test-taking days to the day they decide which university they will attend, Faust said. The program especially targets first-generation, low-income students, she said.

Faust said there are currently 12 undergraduate students and three university staff members who went through Upward Bound. Five of those students are also Community Scholars, she said.

This fall, Faust said, the Upward Bound Program has 90 high school participants.

Eligible students can file an application if they are enrolled at a FWISD high school and meet certain criteria.

Carmen Castro