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SAN ANTONIO REGION MEETING NOTES, April 6, 2007
The TAMHN-SA met at the Texas A&M Perspective Student Center (PSC) Office on Friday morning, 6 April. The following 17 people were in attendance: Narietha Carter, Manuel Cruz, Michael DeLeon, Sandra Fernandez, Vangie Flores, Cynthia Garza, Marc Garza, Robert F. Gonzales, Janie Guajardo, Monica Gutierrez, Leonardo Hernandez, Angelica Melendez, Henry Ortega, David Reta, Ismael Rodriguez, Marisol Scheer, and Jose Ventura.
There's simply a lot of good stuff going on. We have the best PSC in the State and the best TAMHN region in the State. We can be better with your participation. We need you!
We began our meeting with Narietha Carter explaining the Texas A&M Summer Enrichment Camp Iniative, a high school student recruitment program. There are no less than nine opportunities for high school students during the summer. For information, go to https://financialaid.tamu.edu/summercamp and then call the PSC at 212-7016 if you know a high school student who would be a good candidate for any of these camps.
This coming weekend (13-15 April) is Parents' Weekend at A&M. The PSC office is sponsoring an all-day "Family Connection" bus trip to A&M on Saturday, 14 April for potential students and parents (every student on the bus must have at least one parent with him/her). It is an opportunity to showcase the campus to parents as well as students who are interested in attending college at A&M. If you know anyone who is interested or a good candidate, call the PSC at 212-7016 and ask to speak to either Ismael Rodriguez or Sandra Fernandez.
Also on 14 April, the National Hispanic Scholarship Fund will host an event at Kennedy High School from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. The PSC will have a table at this event and they have asked us to support them man it. Jose Ventura graduated from Kennedy many, many years ago and he will be there. If you can join him, even for an hour, please contact him at his cell phone number 535-3407.
We will have phone-a-fish campaign II on Sunday, 15 April at the PSC from 6:00 to 9:00 PM. On 25 March we had a list of 151 accepted Hispanic students to call in phone-a-fish campaign I. We contacted an even 100. We still have to call the remaining 51 on this first list, plus a second list of about 250 additional Hispanic students the PSC received this past week. Congratulatory letters from the TAMHN-SA signed by Jose Ventura have been sent to the 151 names on the first list and will be sent to all students on the second list this week. Our goal is to contact each student by letter AND by phone. If you cannot attend our phone calling session on 15 April and you want to call some students from your home, please let Jose know and he will work with Marisol to get your names and phone numbers. We really need your help to make this project a complete and total success.
Several of us supported the Texas A&M reception for accepted high students at the Double Tree Hotel last Thursday evening. Almost 400 students, parents, former students, and representatives from A&M attended. Our own Cynthia Aguirre spoke about being an Aggie Mom and she was great! It was a fun event.
Remember 1 May is the deadline for high school students to accept A&M's offer of admission and enrollment this fall. This is why we are contacting these Hispanic students- to encourage them to accept A&M's offer if they have not done so already. Our overall goal is to have 1250 Hispanic freshmen this fall on campus. Last year started with 1106.
A small group of about 300 high school students across the State were accepted on a provisional basis, also called the "Gateway" program or summer enrollment program. These students must accept A&M's offer by 27 April and may be required to enroll for and start attending summer courses at A&M in early June before actually graduating from high school.
Anybody who knows a current Hispanic junior in high school who will be a senior this fall and who is in the top 25% of their high school class and who would like to go on a free bus trip to Texas A&M for a campus visit in mid-June, call the PSC office at 212-7016 and ask to speak with either Ismael Rodriguez or Sandra Fernandez about the "Passport to Aggieland" program. You can also ask about "Camp College" on the campus of Texas State University at San Marcos.
At our May meeting, Jose wants to address fund-raising efforts, allocation of our current funds to assist needy students with the fish camp registration fee and a Wal-Mart card to buy essential start-up room items, the planning of an August TAMHN reception for new Hispanic A&M freshmen in the surrounding area and their parents, and establishing officer positions in our organization in addition to the chair position Jose currently holds.
I am told by the Association of Former Students that there are nearly 1500 Hispanic Aggies living in the Bexar County area. Of these, we have only 70 Hispanic Aggies who want to either participate or be kept informed of our activities. We try to do this via a monthly e-mail like this one. Excluding the PSC staff, we have a core of only 15 who are doing all of the heavy lifting. I encourage each one of you to attend at least one monthly meeting a year and participate in at least one function a year. We need you to join us so that together we can make a difference in Hispanic student lives. I hope to see you at the PSC on Sunday evening for phone-a-fish campaign II.
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