UTSA,
EG&G Establish Permanent Scholarship Program Benefiting South Side Students
UTSA and EG&G Management Services of San Antonio have announced that a pilot scholarship program begun by them last year for South Side San Antonio residents will continue.
During 2000, the two organizations partnered to create scholarships for UTSA-bound
students from the South San Antonio, Southside, Southwest and Harlandale independent
school districts, all located near Kelly Air Force Base, which is due to cease
operations as a military installation on July 13.
Using EG&G's initial $20,000 contribution, matched by UTSA, scholarships
were made available to every UTSA-eligible graduating senior in the top 20
percent of their classes in the four school districts. Sixty-four scholarships
were accepted, resulting in an increase of more than 12 percent in the number
of South Side students enrolling as first-time freshmen at UTSA from fall
1999 to fall 2000.
In ceremonies held Wednesday at the Downtown Campus, UTSA President Ricardo
Romo and Rudy DiLuzio, president and general manager of EG&G San Antonio,
signed an agreement to continue their partnership, which will provide $1,000
scholarships to some 40 UTSA-bound students from Harlandale, McCollum, South
San, South San West Campus, Southside and Southwest high schools.
"UTSA is excited about this opportunity with EG&G to expand access
to higher education in San Antonio," Romo said. "This program benefits
many families, but it also benefits UTSA by making it easier for the university
to attract some of this city's top students.
"EG&G has a strong commitment to the community through education,
something that increases in importance with this summer's closing of Kelly,"
added DiLuzio, whose company is working on behalf of the Greater Kelly Development
Authority to manage the base's transition into a private-sector business and
industrial center."We are making progress toward our goal of transforming
the base into a thriving commercial center, and we need a skilled, educated
workforce to make it succeed for the long term."
EG&G's contribution to the UTSA program is part of the company's annual
$60,000 scholarship-support effort. Since 1997, EG&G has awarded $300,000
in scholarship grants to more than 300 college-bound seniors from schools
near Kelly, as well as to the local chapter of the NAACP in support of students
attending historically African American colleges and universities.