Rodeo scholarship winners pay it forward
The annual scholarship banquet is not like any other Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo event. Hundreds of high school juniors and seniors pour into NRG Center, months after the concerts, cook-offs and auctions have ended.
Students arrive with their parents, aunts, uncles and siblings. On average, 20% of the scholarship recipients are the first in their families to graduate from college.
That was the case for Aileen Loera, who attended Manvel High School in north Brazoria County. Growing up, her family always made a point to visit the rodeo at least once each year. She remembers hearing of scholars talk about their scholarships and wondering how they were able to secure one.
“The goal was always to start at a four-year college, but with our finances, I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to do that,” she said. “Senior year, I looked into it and applied.”
After four years at the University of Houston, Loera graduated with a degree in accounting from the C.T. Bauer College of Business and promptly joined not one but two rodeo committees: Hideout, as well as Events and Functions. In 2023, she dropped the Hideout committee but joined the rodeo as a full-time employee. Today, she works as a staff accountant.
“The reason I wanted to be on staff is that we are very true to our mission,” Loera said. “I know how much the scholarship helped me, and made me and my family’s dream come true. It’s really good to see when our accounts payable team cuts the scholarship checks. That used to be me — it’s a full-circle moment, for sure.”
This year, the rodeo’s total scholarship commitment is more than $27 million. There are currently 2,300 students on rodeo scholarships across 80 Texas colleges and universities.
As a then-high school senior back in 2017, Loera received an Opportunity Scholarship, which has since been renamed Houston Area Scholarships. In 2024, 350 students will receive the fouryear, $200,000 award.
Back in 2001, Justin Tankersley was one of them. He grew up in Liberty County and attended Dayton High School.
“I was exposed to the (rodeo’s) volunteer side through my dad, he served on the Liberty County Go Texan Committee,” Tankersley said. “I lost my dad in December of 2000, right before I was going to graduate high school. So the scholarship was extremely meaningful; it allowed me to go to college as I had planned.”
He went on to Texas A&M University and earned a degree in industrial distribution. Promptly after moving to Houston in 2005,
Tankersley followed in his father’s footsteps and joined a rodeo committee.
This year, following 18 years of service, he begins the 2024 rodeo season as a vice president.
“I started volunteering with the rodeo as a way to give back,” he said. “I was in a bad spot, financially,
when I got my scholarship. I want to give other people the same opportunity.”
Sidney Fuchs attended what she describes as a “small, little 1A or 2A school” in Groveton, where she was elected president of her local Future Farmers of America chapter.
“Where I’m from, that’s just what you do,” she said. “I was a pig person. I raised pigs and I did a lot speaking and leadership type contests.”
Fuchs says that although her parents worked hard and wanted the best for their daughter, scholarships were necessary to make college a reality.
“I applied to hundreds,” she recalls. “I needed to get good grades, so I busted my butt to make sure I was in a position to get scholarships. My involvement (with animals) led me to get the one from the Houston rodeo, which was one of the bigger awards. I was very excited when I found out — that was huge for my family.”
Because Fuchs completed her
undergraduate studies at Texas A&M in three years, and her Area Go Texan scholarship was a four-year award, she was able earn a master’s degree during her last two semesters.
“Thanks to God, my parents and the livestock show and rodeo, I graduated with two degrees and zero debt,” Fuchs said. “There are truly no words to describe that feeling. The older I get, the more I realize that’s not the norm, and I will forever be grateful for that.”
She’s worked for the rodeo ever since, as a manager in contracts and legal administration. The 2024 season marks her 10th anniversary with the nonprofit organization.
“I love the rodeo,” she said. “I love what it stands for.”