A L ASTING LEGACY
As scholarship program grows, the rodeo honors first recipient Ben Dickerson
When Ben Dickerson became the Houston Livestock
Show and Rodeo’s first-ever scholarship recipient, he didn’t even know he was in the running.
In 1957, one of his Bellaire High School teachers submitted Dickerson’s name. He was selected as the first and only recipient that year in a program that has since grown to 19,000 scholarships and more than $230 million in support.
“I cannot tell you how thrilled I was,” to receive the gift of $2,000 per year, he says, funds that were crucial for his education at Texas A&M University.
“That was a lot of money back then,” he says.
This year, Houston-born Dickerson, who lives in Denton, will serve as a Grand Marshal at the rodeo, along with scholarship recipients who will represent every decade of the scholarship program’s history.
“I had so many people supporting me, I can’t help but to extend their legacy in lending a hand,” he says of representing the scholarship program, including the opportunities he’s had to address new scholarship recipients.
Transitioning from his rural upbringing in Pierce Junction to a student body population of 12,000 was a difficult transition that Dickerson still remembers.
Rodeo staff and volunteers provided support as he adjusted to life at the large college, he says, which was made more difficult when his father died unexpectedly just before he started his freshman year.
“They kind of became surrogate parents,” he says of the board members who came to town to visit him. “It just seemed like the stock show was more than a source of finances,” he says. “They really became a family to me.”
A Ph.D. and applied sociologist who spent decades as a professor, including serving as director of the Institute of Gerontological Studies at Baylor University, Dickerson currently serves on the Texas Legislative Committee on Aging.
He credits the rodeo in part for instilling “in me a broader meaning of success … of making a difference wherever I was.”
“So many of these youngsters come from these areas where it’s a shock when you get to a large university … and you don’t have a support system. I see the stock show as not only providing financial assistance, they are also great encouragers.”
It’s the kind of support the organization strives to provide to scholars today, says Amy Moroney, the rodeo’s senior director of educational programs and a scholarship recipient herself.
“We’re really trying to build that family atmosphere,” she says of efforts to support scholars in their undergrad years and, later, to help them network with other scholarship alumni after graduation.
The scholarship alumni association, which is free to join, was established in 2015. It currently has about 1,500 members.
Beefing up the alumni association means increasing the number of volunteers for the rodeo, Moroney says.
Alumni serve on rodeo committees, speak in the community on behalf of the rodeo and attend on-campus events as a way of supporting current scholars.
A new ambassador program sends alumni to spread the word about the scholarship program at high school career and college fairs.
Alumni also help to judge scholarship applications, which were submitted in early February. A committee of volunteers and scholarship alumni will determine who receives scholarship funds — up to $20,000 for a four-year degree — based on factors including class rank, test scores, financial need, essay and extracurricular activities.
Applicants will be notified after April and invited to celebrate their achievements at an annual banquet in the summer. In the past, Dickerson has delivered the invocation at the banquet.
Vanessa Vazquez, who in 2010 received an Opportunity Scholarship, now called a Houston Area Scholarship, has become a member of the alumni association and will again attend Scholar Night this year. Taking place on March 14, the annual event allows current and past scholars to mingle.
At past Scholar Nights, Vazquez, a kindergarten teacher at a charter school, says she’s reconnected with old friends and met fellow recipients that are now friends.
The University of Houston grad is a member of the rodeo’s transportation committee, which drives distinguished guests and members of the public from the parking lot to arena on golf carts.
Vazquez says she serves as a volunteer because of how the rodeo affected her life.
“It was just a big blessing,” she says. “Without that money, I don’t think I would have gone to college. I want to give that opportunity to other kids that may not (otherwise) be as lucky.”