Alamo Colleges gets $1M donation
The Alamo Colleges District announced a $1 million donation Monday that will fund scholarships for students participating in the Alamo Promise program.
The gift comes from Malú and Carlos Alvarez and will establish the Alvarez Challenge Grant, which will help provide eligible high school graduates in Bexar County with a free community college education. Carlos Alvarez is the founder and CEO of the Gambrinus Company, the San Antoniobased distributor of Shiner beer.
The Alamo Colleges Foundation, the district’s philanthropic arm, will seek out donations that will match the Alvarez grant dollar for dollar. The $1 million gift will be donated over the course of the next five years.
“Mr. and Mrs. Alvarez recognize the challenges students face in enrolling in college and completing their educational goals, and they also know how critical financial assistance, such as that offered by AlamoPROMISE, is to helping students to overcome these challenges,” Chancellor Mike Flores said in a statement.
“We are honored and grateful for their generosity that will help so many students achieve social and economic mobility.”
This is Alvarez’s second major donation to the Alamo Colleges. He started the Gambrinus Scholarship Endowment at the Alamo Colleges in 2002 with a $500,000 matching grant, which now stands at $1 million.
“At that time, nearly 20 years ago, we felt that this institution was the best investment vehicle to help students with limited financial resources find realistic pathways to a college education. Today, our support for Alamo Promise reaffirms and builds upon this belief,” Alvarez said in a statement.
The Alamo Promise program was started last year as a way to improve Bexar County’s college-going rate by eliminating tuition costs for eligible high school graduates. The first cohort of about 2,900 students enrolled in the district’s five community colleges this semester.
The Alamo Colleges have raised more than $7.5 million in private donations since the program’s launch. Applications for the program’s fall 2021cohort are due Feb. 15.