With help from foundation, UTSA offers Latino students a full ride

Starting this fall, 15 first-generation Latino students will get full tuition to the University of Texas at San Antonio under a $2.4 million grant from the Hector and Gloria López Foundation.

Applicants will be randomly selected and be named López Scholars, with their tuition and fees atop financial aid or Pell grants covered for the next five years.

To qualify, they must show financial need, be the first in their families to attend college, and have lived in or graduated from high schools in the areas of San Antonio, Austin, El Paso, the Rio Grande Valley and South Texas. The foundation was established in 2021 to support post-secondary educational attainment among Latino students in those regions.

“I am immensely grateful for the generosity of the Hector and Gloria López Foundation and their support of our vision to become a national model for student success, empowering all students — regardless of their background — to succeed,” UTSA President Taylor Eighmy said in a news release.

“This grant will directly impact our students who are gaining the skills needed to build a talent pipeline that will grow the workforce for our city, region and state,” he added.

UTSA officials said the grant recognizes the university’s role in the region as a Hispanic Serving Institution, and its efforts to create paths toward high-quality education for Latinos in the region.

The foundation is based on the accumulated land and financial assets of Hector and Gloria López, now deceased. They were of Mexican descent, grew up in Texas, attended college and settled in Alice, where they ran a law practice focusing on real estate and oil and gas leases.

UTSA is among the latest recipients of such a grant from the foundation, which also awarded a $2.1 million gift to Texas A&M University-san Antonio in 2022.

“It’s important that young Latinos see a clear path to success, and UTSA is a key contributor to making Latino dreams a reality,” Sergio Rodríguez, foundation CEO and nephew of Hector and Gloria López, said in the new release.

“The University of Texas at San Antonio is an ideal recipient of the López Foundation grant for its infrastructure to serve first-generation and lowincome students, its programs to increase Latino representation, and because it resides in a city with a majority Latino population,” he said.