Development
Ambitious Student-Driven Campaign Seeks Scholarship Funds
Pretty soon now, the path to student success will literally be paved through the heart of the Texas Tech campus.
When it comes to student recruitment, maybe bricks say it best – thanks
to a new student-driven scholarship initiative.
Paving the Way to Student Success, an ambitious drive to drum up $5 million for new merit and opportunity student scholarships, is a key project for the Student Government Association under President Nathan Nash.
Funding student scholarships has formed a core focal point of his tenure and is something he believes is critical to Texas Tech as it looks to attract even more top-notch students.
Nash hadn’t been in office long, in fact, before he paid a visit to Mary Saathoff , senior director of corporations, foundations and scholarships for Texas Tech’s Institutional Advancement, to see what the student government could do to help provide scholarship money.
Out of that meeting came the current campaign, which allows donors the opportunity to support student success by purchasing a brick with their name on it.
“This is a project that 
is very much student driven,” Saathoff
says. “It is students giving back to students.”
The bricks, highlighting three levels of giving, will be placed in a sidewalk leading from the Administration Building to Memorial Circle. They will serve as a permanent tribute to the donor’s generosity in the heart of Texas Tech’s picturesque campus. Three levels of giving – Distinguished, at $1,000 or more; Leadership, at $10,000 or more; and Excellence, at $100,000 or more – will be recognized.
So far, the campaign has raised nearly $442,000 in anticipated gifts and pledges. The cause has attracted the support of venerable community leaders like U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, and the Lubbock City Council.
“There is no greater need at Texas Tech today than the need to broaden the scholarship endowment base,” says Texas Tech President Emeritus and campaign cabinet member Donald R. Haragan.
-Cory Chandler