

po * ten * tial
(noun)
Word Origin: From late Middle English, evolving from Latin ‘potentialis’ meaning having power and being able
1. Having the necessary abilities or qualities to fulfill or accomplish a goal
2. Capable of being or becoming
3. An unrealized ability that is yet to be discovered or developed
ONE BOLD PURPOSE
MORE THAN 40 YEARS AGO, A DETERMINED GROUP OF COMMUNITY LEADERS CAME TOGETHER TO DO THE IMPOSSIBLE: CREATE A PUBLIC UNIVERSITY WHERE POTENTIAL IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN PRIVILEGE
We see our purpose in action every day. Mothers and fathers. Sisters and brothers. Former enlisted men and women and their families. High school graduates. Everyday people from every walk of life. And, as unique as each of them are, they have some important things in common. Many of them are the first in their family to go to college or graduate school. Many of them have taken some college classes, but never completed their degree. Still others have a degree already and are changing careers or strengthening their credentials with an advanced degree. That’s where we come in.
Some very good universities both in Texas and across the country have built their reputations on how selective they are – accepting only a small percentage of applicants. We say good for them.
Because we know what kind of university we are, and we know we are not those guys. Not even close – and in the best way possible.
We draw our heritage from The Texas A&M University System, and we know what is expected of us: strong academic and student services programs, talented and student-centered faculty, dedicated and relatable staff, and close community connections.
We do not believe that the quality of a degree is defined by how many people are turned away, priced out of the opportunity, or saddled with sixfigure student loan debt. We were built different. We were created to value potential over privilege. We are here to prove that everyone deserves a chance to pursue their degree without the barriers sometimes built into other institutions.
Why? Because we know that’s what the folks who fought so hard to bring us here wanted. They believed – and we do too – that earning a degree is transformative, and something that great should never be available just to the exclusive few.
Since our founding 15 years ago, A&MCentral Texas has awarded more than 11,000 undergraduate and graduate degrees, creating educators, counselors, social workers, teachers, biologists, nurses, engineering technologists, musicians and artists, mathematicians, businessmen and women, aviators, historians, political scientists, cybersecurity and law enforcement professionals, linguists, and scholars.
And here’s the best part: Every single one of those graduates, every current student, and every applicant for admissions knows that we are making good on our promise by welcoming everyone with equal parts of encouragement and exceptional educational opportunity. And we are making good on the promise every day. Because it is who we are. It is our bold purpose.




A&M-CENTRAL TEXAS CHAMPIONS EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY
It wasn’t really all that long ago when the Central Texas community had no access to public undergraduate and graduate degrees. We were fortunate to have community colleges close by, but those who wanted to complete their undergraduate or graduate degree at a public university were at the mercy of the mileage it would take them to drive to Stephenville or Austin.
For a lot of potential students, there were also financial and institutional barriers to getting their degree, and as our founders set about the process of putting a public university within reach, they also focused on purposefully creating a university that was open to all.
Presenting at a hearing called together by then Governor George W. Bush in May 1996, the retired General Robert M. Shoemaker convinced a room full of legislators and state officials of the need for a public university in Central Texas by showing them a map. Almost every area in Texas, he observed, was within a 100-mile radius of a public, state supported college or university – with one glaring exception: Central Texas.
Shoemaker’s impeccable logic. He knew that opportunity required an openness not common to most universities. And he believed that if everyday people had a university in their midst, the very same people who had no access before would show their community, state, and nation what happens when opportunity meets an unbending determination to succeed.
That’s the principle we have built ourselves upon, and it is not in our nature or our heritage to become a copy of every other university out there. As a part of the legendary Texas A&M University System, we know that we exist to proudly offer opportunity for everyone who is willing to work for it – from every community, at every income level, and from every educational background.
“It is not in our nature or our heritage to become a copy of every other university out there.”
“The Central Texas area is by far the largest urban concentration in Texas that does not have ready access to public universities,” he told them. “And that means two-thirds of a million Texans who are potential university students do not have convenient access to a public, state supported university.”
Never one to surrender, General Shoemaker’s strategic thinking ultimately worked. He was successful that day, and our university stands here all these years later, as committed as he was to make good on his promise of degree attainment.
Our approach to undergraduate and graduate degree completion is as simple as General
Here, our friends and neighbors are welcome to bring their big dreams. We will meet them with the encouragement and intellectual heft of a worldclass community of scholars and professors who know them on a first-name basis and who are as devoted to their success as they are to their discipline. It’s a first-class educational experience and it yields incredible results.
Our first building bears General Shoemaker’s name, and it’s a daily reminder of what he cherished and all we have accomplished. It’s a mission that echoes our proud past, informs our present, and inspires our future.
And as we witness the many successes of our students and alumni, we remain constantly aware of the importance of our bold purpose: championing the power of potential and the promise of educational opportunity.
WARRIORS

ENROLLMENT BY AGE GROUP
3 OUT OF 4 STUDENTS ARE PURSUING THEIR BACHELOR’S DEGREE
1 IN 4 STUDENTS IS PURSUING THEIR MASTER’S DEGREE
51% OF STUDENTS ARE MILITARY AFFILIATED
(ACTIVE DUTY, VETERAN, OR FAMILY MEMBER)
A&M-CENTRAL TEXAS HAS TEXAS COVERED
OUR STUDENTS LIVE & WORK IN
THE
TEXAS COUNTIES. ~ AND ~ IN ALL 50 STATES, THE TERRITORY OF PUERTO RICO, AND 18 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES
AVERAGE TIME TO COMPLETION OF A BACHELOR’S DEGREE: 95% COURSE COMPLETION
6 SEMESTERS

78%
PERSIST IN THEIR DEGREE PROGRAMS
RECEIVE SOME FORM OF FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE OF OUR GRADUATES WERE THE FIRST IN THEIR FAMILY TO RECEIVE A UNIVERSITY DEGREE 57% IN 2023,
68% OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS 56% OF GRADUATE STUDENTS
65% OF STUDENTS RECEIVE PELL GRANTS
STUDENT DEMOGRAPHICS
30 UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS
19 GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS
15 ACTIVE STUDENT ORGANIZATIONS
SOURCE: A&M UNIVERSITY OFFICE OF INSTITUTIONAL RESEARCH
HIGH IMPACT GIFTS IN ACTION
1,646 GIFTS RECEIVED FROM 663 DONORS a&m university-central texas foundation 17 UNIVERSITY ENDOWMENTS 21 FOUNDATION ENDOWMENTS
$10.6M TOTAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO UNIVERSITY FROM FOUNDATION SINCE 2009


2024 GREATER TEXAS FOUNDATION WARRIOR SCHOLARS
In 2022, A&M–Central Texas secured a generous grant from Greater Texas Foundation (GTF) to fund the Warrior Scholars Program. Early College High School graduates who transfer to A&M–Central Texas after their associate’s degree are eligible for a $2,000 per year scholarship for up to three years, supporting the completion of their undergraduate degree. In 2024, the first class of Greater Texas Foundation Warrior Scholars was welcomed as they began their classes at A&M-Central Texas. Congratulations!
FOUNDATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Joe Burnett, Chairman
Lenna Barr, Treasurer
Janet Garcia, Secretary
Peter Beronio
Rupe Gopani
Jonas Miller
Matthew Yowell
Scott Connell, Ex Officio
Jamie Duncan, Ex Officio
THANK YOU TO OUR PAST FOUNDATION BOARD MEMBERS
Jimmie Don Aycock
Coleen Beck
Sis Beck
Jon Burrows
Vicki Carlson
Craig Carlson
Scott Cosper
Susan Fergus
Tim Harris
Nancy Hennigan
Bobby Hoxworth
Mary Kliewer
Al Knight
Les Ledger
Paula Lohse
Richard Love
Sam Murphy
Gaylene Nunn
Ron Parry
Kerry Russell
Pete Taylor
Wendell Williams
Steve Hanik
Ronald Stepp
Abdul Subhani
Carlyle Walton
SPOTLIGHT ON ACADEMIC ADVISING
When the A&M-Central Texas advisors gather to talk about their work with students, the room fairly crackles with their energy. This eight-person team of five women and three men is the real-world embodiment of talent, devotion, and professionalism.
Tyjai Stevenson, 32, Killeen resident, Robert Wells, 53, Lampasas resident, and Yvonne Imergoot, 52, Kempner resident, work with the students in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Jeff Barron, 44, Melanie Mason, and Patrice Taylor, 41, Killeen residents, are assigned to the College of Business Administration, and Tim Gibson, 43 and Noemi SaDiablo, 44, Killeen residents, comprise the advising staff in the College of Education and Human Development.
“Academic advisors are the Swiss Army knives of higher education,” says Jeff Barron, flashing a 1000watt smile. “Very seldom is it clerical. Almost always, it is working backwards from their degree goals and individualizing solutions and support for each student and showing them how to make their degree happen.”
On a day-to-day basis, what advisors do is seldom exactly the same thing twice. They are sounding boards, academic and life coaches, and problem-solvers working with and for about 1,800 A&M-Central Texas undergraduate students – all in an effort to see to it that everything students need to support their degree goals is there for them.

ARE MADE OF WARRIORS SMARTS & HEARTS
ACADEMIC ADVISORS
To their delight, there is rarely a moment when advisors aren’t working one-to-one with their students. And none of them complain. In fact, they are joyous, undaunted, and unashamedly enthusiastic.
Even when their work means that they stay everyday reliably busy. Consistently busy. Hard to imagine anyone out working them busy. They do their jobs with patience, humor, complete devotion, and equal doses of head and heart. Big, wide open, humongous, Texas-sized hearts.
There are after-hours calls, endless streams of emails, drop-in visits, and out of the office encounters on weekends. And even that suits them just fine. Even when they’re just living their lives after work hours, running errands, grocery shopping, or worshipping at church.
It is common they say. And, more often than not, their students find them everywhere, offering happy hugs, progress reports, new questions, and words of gratitude.
Advisors must know a lot about everything in the world outside their offices – courses, expectations, finances, and motivation. And when to apply what to get the best results for their students.
One of their favorite things, they say, is graduation. It very likely that it was they who helped complete the application for graduation, reminded their students of crucial deadlines, or ensured that every single previous course credit counted when it mattered.
“Academic advisors are the Swiss Army knives of higher education.”
“We get stopped all the time wherever,” laughed Yvonne Imergoot, adding that, for the A&M-Central Texas advisors, it’s never an interruption. More like a welcome reminder that what they do matters. Even if it means doing their best to be helpful to a student while standing in the grocery line at HEB or working out at the gym.
It is, they say, perhaps not for everyone. But, for them, it is joyous. Because it is evidence that they have made a meaningful connection with their students. And those meaningful connections, they add, have a big impact.
“Many of our students are first generation degree seekers,” said Imergoot. “Which means we take the extra time to be sure they understand how everything works. And when they face obstacles or celebrate big accomplishments, it is us they come and find. And that experience multiplied by the hundreds of students we all see every semester is an extraordinarily fulfilling career.”
Yes. They are occasionally sentimental about seeing their work with students culminate in a cap and gown and a walk across the stage at commencement. But wait. There is one more thing: something personal and professional. And it packs a significant punch.
Four of the current eight advisors, Noemi SaDiablo, Patrice Taylor, Jeffrey Barron, and Melanie Mason, were – at one time – A&M-Central Texas students themselves. Inspired by the role their advisors played in their lives, they chose to join ranks because, they say, they know firsthand how fulfilling the work is.
It is not enough they say, that they have earned degrees for themselves. What they want is for each and every one of their students to know that same success and accomplishment. When it happens, they say, it is completely contagious – in the best way possible.
“When a student and an advisor make a bond, the student knows that someone is there in a time of need – a friend, an encourager, an expert, and an advocate,” said SaDiablo.
“It is then when all the possibilities that their lives can hold are discovered. Who would not do that kind of work for the very same university that made it happen for them? That is why we are all here.”
ZUBERI ASHRAF EXCEPTIONAL ALUMNI
A. H. M. Zuberi Ashraf, 29, is no stranger to science, and, for most of his life, science has been no stranger to him. He grew up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, the younger of two brothers. Parents, Ashraf Ali and Jibon Nessa, encouraged him to have high expectations for himself, never knowing, but always hoping, as parents do, that his sacrifice and hard work would be rewarded with success.
CLASS OF 2018
Little did they know just how high he would aim. At just 16 years old, their son took the Cambridge University “O Level” exams in not one, but nine different areas, passing all of them with the rare and highly coveted A and A* rankings.
Yes. Cambridge University. Established in 1209. Alumni including Sir Isaac Newton. Charles Darwin. Steven Hawking. Not bad company to aspire to for a 16-year-old

ARE MADE OF WARRIORS
boy from Northern Bangladesh.
With all he has accomplished in the last two decades, Zuberi hesitates to count himself among those elite scientists. At least, not yet. He took those exams, he says, because they were the only key available to him to unlock the promise of a university education.
One leap of faith led to another. His Senior English teacher, Mohammad Azhteruzzman, suggested the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study Program. It was an easy and obvious choice. Not entirely without an ulterior motive.
The studious young man, raised on high expectations and discipline wanted a university degree. But because he wasn’t a complete nerd, he also had his heart set on something else that sealed his decision to become an exchange student.
at Baylor Scott and White. Another giant leap forward. And another to come.
The doctorate. And not just any doctorate. The prestigious microbiology doctoral program at The University of Texas at Austin. He held his breath. One of hundreds of applicants competing for just one of the 25 muchcoveted spots.
“As much as he has accomplished, he knows there is more to do. Because that is the promise of science.”
He wanted to go to prom. Fun. Tuxes and tennis shoes. Football. And Texas, he would soon discover, was just the right place for that.
While attending Temple High School, his host family introduced him to Temple College. There, he found top-notch science programs, and, to his delight, Texas Bioscience Institute where he graduated with honors. Then A&M-Central Texas. And the coveted Warrior Corps Merit Scholarship.
The biology and chemistry labs were like Disneyland for science nerds: mass spectrometersm, chromatographs, spectrophotometers, scanning electron microscopes, and DNA processing and imaging systems. The faculty, he said, loved their subjects and inspired his curiosity. Even more, they offered hands-on learning, encouraging students to engage with all of it. And them.
Prepare and present research, they told their undergraduate students. Write and publish. Hone academic-level critical analysis skills. Get ready to take your professional place in the sciences. Excel. Repeat.
Immediately after completing his undergraduate degree with honors, Zuberi became a certified medical lab scientist
The news came. He had been admitted and awarded a full five-year fellowship working under the supervision of Dr. Jeffrey Barrick. Once again, risk had been met with reward. He is thankful for a lot of things, he says, but particularly for his family, who, for the last 13 years, has stood beside him from almost 10,000 miles away. Special occasions. His older brother’s wedding. His father’s retirement. They assured him they understood. And he knew, as he always had, that he wasn’t the only one making sacrifices. Finally, Ashraf thanks his other family. Not the one made of blood or DNA, but those whose hearts and minds embraced him without reservation. His exchange family, the Fords made Central Texas his home. Introduced him to breakfast tacos, church Sundays, and Temple College.
Last, but certainly not least, Zuberi is grateful for his “science family.” Far too many to name, he confesses. The past and present professors. From A&M-Central Texas, he thanks two incredible women: Dr. Laura Weiser Erlandson and Dr. Linh Pham.
They love science the way he does, he says. And when they saw promise in him – just like they see with all of their students – they nurtured it until he became the scholar and researcher he hoped to be.
Reflecting on his journey – from a ninth grader to now –he recognizes the threads of risk and reward that are like seams he has sewn into the fabric of his life. The doctorate in 2026. As much as he has accomplished, he says, he knows there is more to do. Because that, he says, is the promise of science.
EXCEPTIONAL ALUMNI
In the lazy days that constitute a Texas summer, time unfolds slowly, like a long, thick, looping curl of saltwater taffy in the making. In every neighborhood, the final school bell rings and the jubilation begins. Bikes are ridden, waterparks fill with families and friends, and vacations and summer camps commence. For Hannah Baratang, childhood summers
HANNAH BARATANG ARE
CLASS OF 2020
held plenty of fun adventures. But to her delight, there was something else: science.
Joan Baratang, Hannah’s mom, recognized her daughter’s talent for learning. In second grade, her daughter sped easily through an entire year’s curriculum long before the actual academic year was over.

MADE OF WARRIORS
Sensing that she could do more, she enrolled her in Visions of Victory Christian Academy. Every summer afterward, Hannah recalls, her mother took her through an accelerated curriculum from the Abeka Academy.
At 12 years old, when the other kids her age were starting middle school, Hannah graduated from high school. But wait, they say. There’s more. That was the same year she became a new freshman at Central Texas College.
A dinged-up canvas backpack casually slung over one shoulder, colorful stuffed animal keychains bouncing happily from its metal links as she walked to and from classes, she blended right in. And, once again, there was nothing light about her courseload: Biology. Chemistry. Physics. Advanced mathematics.
Dr. Sandra Whisler, CTC biology teacher, confessed that neither she nor any of Hannah’s classmates ever realized that Hannah was barely into her teens. She does remember, however, an easy-going, happy and hard-working student who not only took her botany class on the unapologetically accelerated, five-week summer schedule, but proceeded to ace every exam, scoring above 100% -- even nailing the extra credit options.
“I’ve taught biology for 16 years,” Whisler mused. “I’ve taught hundreds and hundreds of students. Hannah is easily one of the three of the best I have ever had.”
minor almost flummoxed the university’s human resources staff. It took a few extra steps, laughed Weiser-Erlandson. But it was worth it. For two years, the science lab was home sweet home for Hannah.
Until, once again in record time – just after her 19th birthday – Hannah graduated. Without missing a beat, she moved to San Marcos where she completed her graduate degree in biology at 22.
Now 23, Hannah Baratang is a program faculty member, teaching five genetics labs a week. Quite possibly, among the youngest in the State. And certainly, among the youngest faculty members at Texas State University. Maybe even the U.S.
“Within just two years, she had two associates degrees: one in organismal biology and the other in chemistry. She was 15.”
Hannah credits Whisler for putting academic wheels under her feet, inspiring her and encouraging her love for biology. Within just two years, she had two associates degrees: one in organismal biology and the other in chemistry. She was 15.
Her age, once again, wasn’t an issue. Well, at least not right away. She began A&M-Central Texas biology program where she was invited to be a student worker in the lab. It was, she says with a grin, like being a kid in a candy store.
Dr. Laura Weiser-Erlandson, Chair of the Biology Department, and Dr. Linh Pham, chemistry professor, knew that she was perfect for it. They just could not have anticipated how young the new lab worker was until they tried to hire her.
The normal hiring procedures were meant for traditionally aged candidates and, they laughed, her legal status as a
Baratang thinks about her A&M-Central Texas and Central Texas College science professors often. A long way from being a student worker in the lab, she teaches in her own lab now. She hopes, she says, to inspire her students’ natural curiosity as much as Dr. Laura Weiser-Erlandson and Dr. Linh Pham did for her.
She remembers donning a protective white jumpsuit as a student. Taking up a sweep net and wandering through the pristine 672-acre university campus for what might be found there. The world is a wondrous place, she says. Full of science and discovery.
As much as she loves her calling inside the lab, she also harbors a big love for the outdoors, too. And a few other more eclectic hobbies.
Like organizing large-scale concerts. All over Texas. No protective gear needed for that, she laughs. Except maybe sunscreen, emergency earplugs, and a well-thought-out Excel spreadsheet.
The doctorate is a possibility. But between then and now, it is not like the natural curiosity that has propelled her this far this fast exactly shuts itself off. So, she says, she’s exploring the possibility of becoming a master naturalist, contributing her brainpower, time, energy, and creative capacity to the maintenance of the State’s native ecosystems.
The best part of her learning, she says, is not just the notoriety around being the youngest – twice at CTC, once at A&M-Central Texas, and then again, twice, at TSU. What inspires her is the knowing that her learning will never really finish. There is, after all, a whole live world out there to explore.
EXCEPTIONAL ALUMNI
SYLVIA+MADELINE CaBRIALES
In the summer of 1997, in the first gentle weeks of June, San Antonio was easing into inevitable summer. That morning, 17-year-old Sylvia Trujillo combed her thick black hair, put on jeans and a blouse, and made her way to the city’s iconic red sandstone courthouse.
There, in front of a justice of the peace, she and Miguel Cabriales, 16, swore to love and cherish, for better or for worse, in sickness and in health, driving home in his ’93 Hyundai Elantra.
There was nothing impetuous about their decision. They loved each other. Wanted a family. A future.
Only three months away from her graduation, Sylvia dropped out of high school when caring for her infant and expecting another made it too hard. Miguel, a woodworker, had a job.
Seven months later, their son, Michael, was born. They bought a two-bedroom house on Lombrano Street. New windows and a nice door. Sheet rock and new tile. Their second son, Matthew, joined the family.
Miguel joined the Army. 14 Tango. Two years later, a daughter, Madeline. Orders to PCS to El Paso. Ansbach and Hanau, Germany. Daegu, Korea.
CLASS OF 2024

MADE OF WARRIORS
Sylvia completed high school online. Her children, she said, made her want more. No one in her family or Miguel’s had ever gone to college.
The youngest of four sisters and two brothers, she knew her mother loved her. Her father worked hard but drank it. And everything, she says, from the food they ate to the clothes they wore, was from the nearby church. Her brother, Frank, tried. Someday, he promised her, we will always have food.
Crushing poverty is seldom escaped. But it is more than physical hunger. For most, it exacts an even higher price: the relentless inability to hope. Yet, to their credit, she and Miguel had done exactly that.
“It
They had three children. Healthy and happy. Her husband’s military service complete, they returned to Central Texas, buying a home in Copperas Cove. College wasn’t yet top of mind then, she admits. But, in the way things sometimes do, fate did what it sometimes does.
together – Madeline at ECHS and Sylvia at CTC –mother and daughter transferred to A&M-Central Texas together. Madeline full-time. Sylvia part-time. They never even thought of the possibility of graduating together back then.
Naturally, they were both university students. And they had taken a big step forward. All eyes on course completion, they said. Assignments. Endless studying. Research papers. Their confidence grew as the semesters passed. One year in and then two.
was finish line fever. And it was game on.”
That fall, as Madeline was about to begin ninth grade, Sylvia heard about the Early College High School program (ECHS). Mother and daughter talked about it. Mom wanted daughter to go. Daughter wanted a quinceanera.
Her high school freshman daughter’s plans had nothing to do with the rigors of college level courses. At only 14 years old, Madeline wanted friends and fun and first dates. Of course you do, Sylvia said. But you will go. And then, with the same firm resolve that she deployed to enroll her daughter in ECHS, Sylvia went straight to Central Texas College and enrolled herself.
At first, she said, she intended to go into nursing. One by one, she took the prerequisite courses following the recommended core courses. Composition. History. Psychology. Government. Sociology. Languages. Then a change of mind.
Fascinated by human behavior, she focused on social work, psychology, and sociology. And maybe graduate school she thought. Veremos.
In just two years, Madeline had earned her associate’s degree. And, just as they had begun their college journey
Not exactly in sync but making progress. Until their academic advisor told them: Madeline, who had been taking full-time courses, was likely to graduate A&M-Central Texas first. And just one word entered Sylvia’s mind.
Nope, she thought. Nope. She had no intention of holding back her daughter, she said. But there was only one way to catch up to her. She was going to have to significantly ramp up the number of courses she was taking. Because, she thought, we started together. We finish together.
Even when she sat down to plot out the game plan with the advisor and was told that she would have to triple her previous courseload from two classes a semester to a grueling six for a full year. It was finish line fever. And it was game on.
Graduate together is just what they did. Commencement processional. Side by side. On the floor of the Cadence Bank Center. Side by Side. Reluctantly, Sylvia admits that Madeline was first, but only because graduation protocol required alphabetical sequence.
At the end of one journey comes another. The girl who once quit just three months before completing her senior year of high school is now a woman who has not one ounce of quit in her. And neither does her daughter.
Madeline has her sights set on Texas A&M University Law School, and Sylvia begins her journey as a graduate student in the A&M-Central Texas Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. After that, she says, she plans to pursue a doctorate. She has seen, she says, what hope and hard work can accomplish.
LUPE COLON
On an otherwise nondescript evening at the Fort Hood Educational Center, Lupe Colon was one of about 30 composition students taking an evening class and in the 15th week in a 16-week semester. During a 20-minute break, her instructor sat next to her to help her pick her next semester’s courses.
CLASS OF 2015 & 2017 ARE MADE OF WARRIORS
Scrolling through the transcripts, she reviewed Lupe’s academic record. Psychology major. Wait. Scroll back. Psychology coursework was all D’s and F’s. She inhaled deeply and turned to her student. Their eyes met. Twenty years in community colleges had taught her how to spot a disconnect.

In her class – the prerequisite to Freshman Composition – Lupe was doing well. Really well, in fact. So, what could account for the D’s and F’s in her major, she wondered. So, she thought before she spoke, looking carefully at her other coursework first.
College Algebra. Pre-Calculus. Calculus I, II, and III. Differential Equations. Straight A’s. Biology I and II. Aced. Chemistry I and II. Also straight A’s.
A full decade since their encounter, Lupe still laughs about their conversation that evening. The instructor looked at her, she says, pointedly asking her why she was majoring – and mostly failing – in a subject that she liked about as much as it liked her. And completely oblivious to her obvious talent for math. What her teacher could not have known then is that when Lupe had begun taking classes, she was a military spouse. Wife deployed. Left in a new place. No one she knew had ever been to college. So, she asked around. Major in psychology they had all said. That was about to change.
“All of her future decades, she knew, she would make the way for her students just as those she had met along the way guided and encouraged her.”
The teacher suggested they look at something. She pointed to the transcript and the string of A’s reflected there on the computer screen as shades of off white and gray light illuminated their conversation.
Not a lot of people get grades like this or even try to take these classes, she told her. You did. Do you know how valuable your talent for math is, she asked her. Even more valuable, she suggested, since women were underrepresented in science and math.
When not teaching English at night, Lupe’s teacher worked at A&M-Central Texas. Come to campus, she said, scribbling the campus address and her office number on Lupe’s folder. You are going to be a math major, she told her. And there is someone you need to meet at A&MCentral Texas.
The math department chair, Dr. Miene Roberts, she promised, will want to meet with you and talk about our mathematics degree. One more thing, she promised: She is going to recognize your talent even faster than I did.
By 2015, Lupe had successfully transferred and completed her undergraduate degree. Almost immediately, she became a middle school math and science teacher and, without missing a beat, she returned to A&M-Central Texas for graduate school. Two years later, her M.Ed. completed, she followed her wife, Noemi, from place to place. Fort Benning, Georgia. Guam. Finally, El Paso. Where she became a principal at Idea Public Schools.
Anyone else might have eased into such a big job before taking on anything else. Not Lupe. She applied for and received admission to the Capella University doctoral program for educational leadership.
Never far from her mind is her mother, Guadalupe de la Vella, now 70. Originally from Peru, she had come to the U.S. six decades ago. Became a citizen and a single mom. Worked for five dollars an hour and raised her only daughter in a nine-person nuclear family. Abuelos y abuelas, nietos y nietas. Three bedrooms.
Her mother, Lupe knows, labored all of those years without any expectations for herself, except that she wanted more for her daughter. She sent her to Catholic school. Saved nickels and dimes and dollars, walked instead of riding the bus. Fideo instead of bisteak. Because, she knew, opportunities matter, but they come at a price.
In January 2024, 10 years since that first entirely fateful moment when her teacher intervened in her academic journey, Lupe held her doctoral degree in her hands and stared at her graduation regalia ordered for her upcoming graduation ceremony.
She would wear the gown of black and cobalt blue. Three velvet stripes on each sleeve. A doctoral hood with bright blue chevron would drape over her shoulders and down her back. All of it crowned by a slightly pillowed, black velvet tam with a bright gold strand and a generous dangling bullion tassel.
All of her future decades, she knew, she would make the way for her students just as those she had met along the way guided and encouraged her.
CRUZ GONZALEZ
CLASS OF 2023

ARE MADE OF WARRIORS
Cruz Gonzalez-Mendoza, 29, remembers the long, slow summer months of his boyhood. But his memories are not about baseball parks, soccer fields, swimming pools, or even comfy spots on the sofa with a gaming console. His memories are about going to work with his father. Not every day, he says. Just those special days when he had worked up the nerve to ask. He would pick his moment. Find his father, Fidel, standing at the kitchen sink, refilling the same extra-large plastic Coke bottle with tap water, preparing to leave the house.
Hard to dismiss a kid at his age, he hoped. Innocently intended big brown almond shaped eyes glistening up at his dad. Hope and admiration. Whittling his way into his dad’s good graces, even if being with him meant also being in the merciless 100+ degree heat of a Texas summer in a Central Texas limestone quarry.
On those rare occasions when the answer was yes, Cruz knew the rules. Had heard them recited at the dinner table for years. He was to stay firmly in his father’s line of sight at all times. He also knew his father would face the sharp end of his mother’s tongue if her son came home with bruises or – heaven forbid –stitches or a broken anything.
joyful labor. In the unpredictable Texas elements. Sweltering heat and occasional sheets of rain. Punctuated by 1200-pound blocks of limestone. The ear-piercing whistling sounds of the men sawing each piece into less gigantic transportable slabs.
And the other whistle, he says. The sound of his father pressing his thumb and forefinger against his lips and the way it echoed off the quarry walls. It meant it was time for the workmen to stop long enough to eat lunch.
As he got older, he says, his dad taught him to drive the forklift, dodge an occasional rattlesnake, respect the random packs of wild pigs or javelina. He marveled at the workers. Covering the front and back of their bodies with the full length of at least two mylar or aluminum foil car window reflectors. Ingeniously tying them together over their shoulders all in an effort to be able to work longer.
“For the rest of his life, he says, he will remember the simple exhortations of his parents. Family first. Hard work. A time for everything.”
This is the work ethic my parents live by, he thought back then. This is what others live by, too. And so did he. The same work ethic applied at Temple College. And later A&M-Central Texas. His persistence pushing him to the completion of his undergraduate degree in business with honors.
They needn’t have worried. They had raised him up to that point to be a disciplined boy with a relentless work ethic. Patience, they taught. A time for everything. Faith. In real life, that meant no Netflix before homework. School before sports. Family first and always.
The quarries, he said, were kid heaven. A quarter of a mile wide, and at least as deep – a gigantic, vast, and dusty leveled out hole in the ground, surrounded on all open sides by partially mined shelves of chalky pale cream colored limestone. And fifteen men on the crew.
He knew if he deviated from his father’s rules, he would never be allowed back, he said. So, he watched. Learned. Honest labor. Backbreaking hard and still somehow
He isn’t stingy about sharing his story. In fact, he tells it with enthusiasm. The first in his family to go to college. To earn a university degree. His interests, he says, draw him to the competitive world of public administration and government. Maybe a place on staff with a local, state, or national entity.
Today, he works as an enrollment and recruitment specialist with A&M-Central Texas East Williamson County Higher Education Center where he is there to recruit new students from Hutto and the surrounding areas.
For the rest of his life, he says, he will remember the simple exhortations of his parents. Family first. Hard work. A time for everything. Paciencia. Todo es posible cuando Dios quiere.
SANG WOO HAN
OF 2022

ARE MADE OF WARRIORS VISION FASCINATION
The year he was born, Sang Woo Han, 30, was one of the millions of babies born in Seoul, South Korea. The youngest of two children raised by his father, Il-Soo Han, and grandmother, Soojin Kim, he grew up in the Gwankak-gu District on the southern border of Anyang and Gyeongii Province.
His neighborhood was an idyllic place for families. Nestled in the middle of a mountain, it was a sprawling juxtaposition of modern high-rise buildings, businesses, art museums, schools, hospitals, and acres of nature trails.
Han says he was a “tiny kid” back then. On an elementary school field trip, the first time he saw a behemoth of a Boeing 747 up close, his little head fully tilted back in benevolent awe, taking in its majestic proportions: 66.5 feet high, 232 feet long, and 224.4 feet wide from one wingtip to the other.
enough to be admitted to a Korean university. Yet there he was. At exactly the right place and exactly the right time. But for one thing: the six-figure cost of flight instruction and certification.
What he could not have known in that moment was that for two years his father had quietly taken on a new job, living frugally, and saving relentlessly.
Perhaps it was a father’s intuition. Or perhaps this father had known his son’s heart long enough to know the barriers he would face in pursuit of his dreams. Both his blessing and the money to make it possible was given without a moment’s hesitation. By December 2022, Han had completed both his associate and undergraduate degree in aviation.
“Every unexpected divot of wind, every cautious adjustment to the wings, every random tickle of space.
Finally in his hands.”
Han may not have known it then, but his fascination with aviation was sealed that day in ways he would only come to know later.
Throughout his childhood, he says, his eyes were constantly affixed overhead.
Han completed high school. Then mandatory service in the Korean Army. Assigned, entirely by chance, to an aviation brigade. Two years surrounded by pilots, flight crews, and maintenance staff. Both closer than ever to his dream, and still, never further away. But not for long.
An aunt and uncle living in Killeen invited him to the U.S. and, before he knew it, he was taking ESL courses at Central Texas College. Back then, he said, he knew just enough English to order a hamburger from McDonald’s. Lucky again. A few months into his studies, as he walked across campus, his eyes landed on a brochure advertising the college’s aviation program. Even in English, he recognized the word: flight.
His high school grades were substandard. Not good
His first solo flight, he says, was in a Cessna 152 two-seater. Every unexpected divot of wind, every cautious adjustment to the wings, every random tickle of space. Finally in his hands.
Han has returned to his roots, and now teaches flight in the Central Texas College aviation program. The once aspiring pilot now takes his own student pilots literally under his wings. Teaching them both how to fly, and, he hopes, instilling in them the same sense of awe that burst forth in him as the little boy standing next to a Boeing 747.
The first time he saw his name in the course schedule as a teacher, Han immediately took a screenshot and sent it to his dad. His dad’s response, from more than 7,000 miles away, filled his heart with joy. His only words to his son in that moment, “Wow.”
He is certain, he says, that the only thing traveling faster than his student pilots is the speed with which his dad’s texts travel to the entire neighborhood as he peppers friends and neighbors with updates about his son’s latest aviation accomplishments. And, as proud as Sang is of flying, he is even more proud to know that he has made his father proud.
From there, he says, the sky is the limit.
FRANTZY MESADIEU
Frantzy Mesadieu’s birthplace, Jacmel, Haiti, lays on a slender finger of land 3,000 miles from Central Texas. For generations, it has known political upheaval, poverty, economic instability, and natural disasters. And, while that is history, it is not the home that he carries with him. The second-born child of an extended family of six, his childhood memories are filled with school, shops, a community filled with beautiful, whitewashed buildings, burgundy roof tiles, and his home and family. And hot dogs, he says. Haitian hotdogs.
Mesadieu still clearly remembers going to school and the curriculum, even for the young ones, he says, which was nothing to take lightly.
“We studied French and Creole, Spanish and English, math and science, and civic duties,” he said. “Those who wanted education beyond secondary school had to pass a government examination. No one went to college without that.”
Education became a major goal in Mesadieu’s life – as did service to a country he had never set foot on until his 17th year. And this man, a two-time soldier, once serving in both the United States Marine Corps and U.S. Army, also became a foster parent.
It is, perhaps, a credit to the quiet passing of time or the innocence of childhood that he does not remember the persistent poverty that has beleaguered his country for generations.
CLASS OF 2020 & 2022
He remembers the neighborhoods, the shops, the people, and even more importantly, being loved by a woman who was not his birth mother, but who would instill in him – and inspire him – to reserve a portion of his love for children in need.
His childhood home was a large, open concept concrete house filled with floor to ceiling windows, and just beyond, banana trees and the wide blue sky. There, the woman who made it home, Perpetute Forges, his stepmother.

ARE MADE OF WARRIORS INSPIRATION
That he speaks as if he were a poet at heart is not difficult to reconcile. This place he describes is as much a fundamental part of him as the softly polished ebony color of his eyes, the naturally generous expanse of his perfect ivory smile, or the breadth of his shoulders and his disciplined stance.
Back then, he says, he was barely tall enough to reach the kitchen sink. Peretute loved to dance when she cooked. And he loved her Hatian hot dogs. More than once, he smiled, she would lift him off his feet, onto a kitchen table, clasp his hands in hers, and dance.
Fast forward two decades. Mesadieu’s father sent for his son, then 17 years old, moving him to be with him in the U.S. He had proven to be a capable student in Haiti. His first independent step on the road to maturity was about to happen.
Without his father’s knowledge or consent, Mesadieu signed up with the United States Marine Corps’ (USMC) delayed entry program. He was an unlikely soldier: a scrawny scrap of a young man at just 5’7 and 116 lbs.
Less than a month after graduating high school, Mesadieu found himself at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, South Carolina, an 8,000+ acre military installation designed with the sole purpose of identifying the best of the best. He had left one island only to arrive at another.
He completed Central Texas College in only two years. An easy transfer to A&M-Central Texas. Undergraduate degree in computer information systems and cybersecurity. Done. Then, a graduate degree with honors.
Today, he says, he is on an entirely new path, an associate researcher in the University’s Cybersecurity Center where he works on AI software development.
Mesadieu married his wife, Léàla-Ayako, while on duty in Okinawa after they were introduced by a mutual friend. They bonded over a shared love for family, her ability to cook, and his appetite for her cooking.
“The little boy I was in Haiti and the soldier I was on all of those deployments hoped that there would be moments like this one.”
There, recruits are delivered by bus in the dark of night, unceremoniously sorted, shaved, fed, inspected, and evaluated. Thirteen weeks, they told him. More than enough time to break the strongest of men.
Obstacle courses. Field exercises. Leadership orientation. Survival training in the Atlantic Ocean, treading water for hours. By the time it was over, only 18 out of 70 recruits survived. Platoon 2020.
Within a year, he had been ordered to USMC Camp Foster in Okinawa, Japan. Four years. A promotion to corporal. Then the U.S. Army. Eleven years. Promoted to staff sergeant. Deployed six times in four years. Back injuries. Medical retirement. Fulfilling his service to his country not once, but twice, it was time to transition and pivot.
More importantly, he confessed, they shared a common love for children and a family. And, in the years that would follow, husband and wife would not only greet their own daughter, but also open their arms and their homes to a half dozen foster children. Their arms are, and always will be, open wide.
Daughter, Bernadette, now 6, he says, beaming, is a source of constant joy. At his own graduation in 2022, it wasn’t the hooding ceremony or high honors that were echoing in his ears as he left the stage.
Over the boisterous cacophony of the commencement crowd, he stopped on the graduation floor. Like every dad. He knew the sound of his daughter calling for him when he heard it.
She was standing tiptoed in the front row of Section 126. Immediately to his right, joyfully jumping up and down.
In the moment that followed, he broke the ranks of graduates. Diploma under one arm, he stopped to lift his other hand up to hers. There. They briefly touched, as she stood tippy-toed in her gold and glittered mary janes and frilly dress.
“The little boy I was in Haiti and the soldier I was on all of those deployments hoped that there would be moments like this one,” he admitted. “I want to do everything within my power to see that other children have the chance to know what this kind of love feels like.”

WARRIORS PERSISTENCE ARE MADE OF
CHUCK SIMMONS CLASS OF 2024
Chuck Simmons, 79, always wanted to finish the undergraduate degree he began more than 50 years ago, but, he says, he doesn’t begrudge those years. He grew up in North Houston, a child of Depression Era parents. Simple, honest, hard-working people. His dad was a bus driver. His mom raised four children without the expectation of college for any of them.
Almost all the families they knew were like that. After high school, most people found jobs and got married. So did he. To his junior high sweetheart, Linda. He finds work in a bank. He is the low man on the totem pole, but he calls himself the “137th vice president.” Someone in management notices his quiet confidence. He gets an offer to train with IBM. He turns 19, and he and Linda greet their first son. He begins looking into better paying jobs and becomes a Houston Police Officer within a year. He and a couple of fellow police officers make the torturous early morning commute between Houston and Huntsville to go to Sam Houston State University three times a week and return to work their shifts, getting home by 10 p.m., and then doing it all over again.
“Pause
same time Chuck retired after 40+ years on the force. He was looking forward to time with Linda when they discover she had bladder cancer.
Somehow, the random cruelty of loss has not made him bitter. Lonely, yes. But not always. He is close to his three boys and their families. Nine grandchildren. Nine more great grandchildren. Then COVID.
He is wary. The disease is rampant, and many who succumb are his age. At first, he shelters in place and reads everything. Finally, he literally runs out of things to read. Until one day. He has a thought.
What if – after 50 years – he went back to finish that degree. He wakes up in the morning with it on his mind. Same thing at night. Methodically, he knows a lot of things need to get done. So, he makes the two-hour drive to A&M-Central Texas.
if you need to. But do not give up.”
Push comes to shove, just as it always does. Two more sons arrive. And he pauses his education to take on second jobs that leave no room for college. Back then, he says, there were no online options. The years flew by, and he was a faithful wingman.
And, boy howdy, can Chuck tell a tall tale or two. Private security jobs. He meets Elvis and The Beatles. Gets a walk-on part in the movies with Jacqueline Bessette. Provides security for a Saudi American princess. Carries hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money on his person. Not one dollar ever goes missing.
His boys get married. Made their careers in criminal justice. All now retired, and two still working in civilian jobs. Two went on to college right around the
He enrolls as an online student, amazed by how welcoming the environment there was.
Everyone knew him by his first name. Two and a half times older than most of his fellow students, and still, they bonded over zoom. Twice as old as most of his faculty, and not once did any one of them fail to encourage his curiosity or appreciate his contributions to their classes.
It invigorated him, he said. Still does. He even revels in the time spent at the University Writing Center, where he learned how not to write like a cop and begin to write like a scholar.
Chuck received his undergraduate degree in May 2024. But don’t for one minute presume he is finished. This fall, he says, he starts the graduate program in Homeland Security.
More than anything, he says, he wants to encourage others Take that next step. Pause if you need to, he says. But do not give up. Because the inspiration it took to try it once deserves to be fulfilled. That, he says, is a great feeling – with no age limit.
EXCEPTIONAL ALUMNI
VICKI COSPER WILSON
Killeen resident, Vicki Lynn Cosper Wilson, 59, has always loved music. But she never could have predicted how that love would bless her in her time of need.
She knows she leads a charmed life. Three sisters, all close. A harmonious and happy childhood. Three amazing sons. Career. Travel.
One glance at her, and it is obvious: large, piercing azure blue eyes, fiercely chiseled cheekbones, alabaster skin, and an unrelenting smile that suggests she might be somehow lit from within.
These days, she admits, she is more frail than she might normally be, perhaps a bit less muscular, but persistent and
CLASS OF 2024
strong. Filled with purpose. She starts her story at a timeline of her own choosing, describing herself as a working mom back then. A caregiver for her elderly mother. It was 2015. And she had begun to lose her vision. Brain surgery, they recommended. She did not flinch. Not as scary as it sounds, she says. Within two weeks, she was up and around and back to normal.
They had lived in exotic places, she said. Hawaii and Japan. She homeschooled her boys. Made lifelong friends with the people of Okinawa. Admired their culture. Learned their music and their games, and the differences between her birth culture and theirs.

WARRIORS
ARE MADE OF COURAGE
Multigenerational families remained intact, she observed. Even played sports style games together. Her children embraced all of it – the gentle climate, ocean and beaches. Language and customs. She taught English and math for a local school.
After returning to Texas, her boys finished school and began college. That was her cue, she said, enrolling in the A&M-Central Texas graduate program in teaching. She loved it, she said happily. The faculty. Her lessons. Every bit of it.
She had been placed in a teaching practicum at Meadows Elementary School. Embraced by the principal and the assistant principals, and fellow teachers. But her heart – her already happy heart was made most incandescently joyful inside her music classroom.
She and 20 pre-K to fifth grade children laughed and played Pass the Pumpkin where little ones formed a circle and danced until her piano would halt unexpectedly. The last one to find their place had to take up an instrument and play along with the melody she offered. Repeat.
Until, she said, she learned that she had breast cancer. A routine self-exam revealed a lump. A mammogram and biopsy confirmed it. Between stages three and four, her doctors told her. Chemotherapy.
the A&M-Central Texas graduation was on Saturday, and she was determined to walk.
They would gather again. At 5:30 a.m. that Monday. Surgery on Tuesday. Still and all, she refuses to call herself strong. But, she admits, maybe she is a little bit stubborn.

“Thank you for coming to teach even when you don’t feel well.”
Throughout the challenges, she was reminded of everything she loved. Teaching. Her students’ words of encouragement. Their hip high hugs, as they held her, their little arms wrapped around her unabashedly, offering hope. Thank you, Miss Wilson, they told her. Thank you for coming to teach even when you don’t feel well.
May 2024. A phone call from the hospital. Urgent, they said. She heard the words. A radioactive pellet into her lymph nodes to prevent the cancer from spreading. Double mastectomy. Reconstruction.
No, she said. The chemotherapy had already taken her hair, weakened her body until she sat on the floor and cried. Her support team had surrounded her. Dropping whatever they were doing to stand by her. And besides,
Witness the following Saturday. Released from the hospital that very day. Frail but fierce. She joined the processional in her regalia. Received her graduate degree, summa cum laude, hooded by the dean. Cancer would not take this from her. Not that night. And, if she could help it, not any night.
Almost two years later, and through it all, she has never given up. Through everything, what she brought into this fight for her life, remains with her to this day: Her love for music. Her love for teaching. Her love for the little ones she taught to play instruments and dance. Her future and all of the blessings it can hold.
For the next 18 months, the treatment continued, she says. But so did her strength. Through as much of it as she could, when she was able, she was present in her beloved classroom. Even during a second round of chemo finally completed in January 2025. Once again, she rang the bell – the challenge of more chemo completed – as a circle of loved ones: her sons, her family, and her friends.
Two A&M-Central Texas employees were supporting her that day: Dr. Linda Black sent prayers, and Ms. Kim Kuklies, executive director for the university’s educator preparation services, was there with friends and family – just where lifetime friends and mentors belong. So, it was no surprise when she spoke from the heart about her former student, her colleague in teaching, and her very good friend.
“I deeply admire Vicky Cosper Wilson’s unwavering motivation,” she said. “Despite facing challenges that tested her strength and resilience, she remained steadfast in her goal to positively impact the lives of her students. Our community is a better place because of teachers like Vicki.”
15 YEARS: MILESTONE MOMENTS
June: The A&M-Central Texas Foundation is initiated by TAMUS officials, with its Board Chaired by Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Pete Taylor.
April 30: In a transfer ceremony at the U.S. Capital, the Texas A&M University System receives the transfer of 672 acres of land from the U.S. Dept. of the Army as the designated site for the permanent A&M-Central Texas campus.
May 1: THECB certifies that TSU-CT reached 1,204 FTSE, satisfying the enrollment required by statute to initiate the creation of Texas A&MCentral Texas.
May 27: Gov. Rick Perry signs Senate Bill 629, officially adding Texas A&M University-Central Texas as the 11th university in the Texas A&M University System.
A&M-Central Texas U.S. Army ROTC program begins. In the next 16 years, it commissions 340 U.S. Army Second Lieutenants, with 34 in the Top 10% of ALL U.S. Army ROTC graduates and includes 100 Distinguished Military Graduates. In 13 of those years, A&M-Central Texas Army ROTC commissioned more U.S. Army officers than the University of Texas.

Fall 2024 Army ROTC Commissioned Officers
Dec 11: A&M-Central Texas first commencement ceremony held at Bell County Exposition Center, graduating 298 students. The University’s first graduate is Sheritta Adina Arie, from Raleigh, North Carolina, who receives her MBA.
2007 2010 2009
April 30: Dr. Marc Nigliazzo is named sole finalist and inaugural president and is inaugurated on January 19, 2012.
2011-2012
Academic Year
The Texas A&M University System formally approves the designation of three academic schools: the School of Business, the School of Education, and the School of Arts & Sciences which later become the Colleges of Business, Education and Human Development, and Arts & Sciences.
August 26: Founders Hall Groundbreaking Ceremony

May 24: A&M-Central Texas employees leave temporary offices at Central Texas College and move into Founder’s Hall. Warrior Hall Groundbreaking takes place.
At the Spring Commencement Ceremony, Gen. (Ret.) Robert M. Shoemaker receives the Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree from A&M-Central Texas.
Jan 1: A&M-Central Texas is granted separate accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC).

2020
May 14: WASHINGTON MONTHLY ranks A&M-Central Texas among the best colleges and universities in the U.S. for their nonpartisan efforts to engage students in elections.
2016
Dec 13: Heritage Hall Groundbreaking Ceremony
A&M-Central Texas recognized by nonpartisan group ALL IN DEMOCRACY CHALLENGE for Student Voter Participation: 2016-Bronze; 2018-Gold; 2020-Bronze; 2022-Silver
2019
Heritage Hall is renamed the Beck Family Heritage Hall. The Yowell Family names the Bill Yowell Conference Center in honor of long-time University supporter, Mr. Bill Yowell.
2023
Dr. Marc Nigliazzo, Inaugural President, announces his retirement August 31.
U.S. News & World Report ranks two degree programs in the 2023 Best Online Programs: #39 Graduate Program in Criminal Justice and #98 Undergraduate Program in Business.

Groundbreaking Guests (L to R): Interim Provost Kellie Cude, President Emeritus Marc Nigliazzo, TAMUS Student Regent Annie Valicek, TAMUS Chancellor John Sharp, President Richard M. Rhodes, Representative Brad Buckley, Liaison Chip Howell for Senator Pete Flores, and Vice President for Finance and Administration Todd Lutz.
“2nd Most Affordable University in Texas” - College for All Texans
“#1 Least Expensive university in the U.S.” - EdSmart editors
The September 2024 issue of Texas Monthly College Guide recognizes A&M-Central Texas for its commitment to making higher education accessible and affordable.
The 2024 U.S. News & World Report ranks A&M-Central Texas Online Business Program #59 in U.S. and Online Master’s in Criminal Justice Program #59.
As
2024
Feb 8: Dr. Richard M. Rhodes is named President by TAMUS Board of Regents.
April 11: CORE Building Goundbreaking Ceremony
Nov 26: A&M-Central Texas recognized as Most Engaged Campus for College Student Voting by the nonpartisan group ALL IN DEMOCRACY CHALLENGE.
LEARNING & SCHOLARSHIP IN ACTION
COLLEGE OF ARTS & SCIENCES
Recognized 39 students who received a variety of awards for leadership and scholarship ● Developed an outdoor forensic lab funded by the A&M-Central Texas Foundation supporting anthropology and forensic crime science courses and training with police departments in the region ● Students in the undergraduate social work program received a national service award from Phi Alpha national leadership for their community service ● Introduced a new graduate degree program in public administration ● In collaboration with U.S. Representative John Carter, engineering technology faculty received a $2.1M CPF grant to work with the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command, exploring new machine learning ● Two graduates of the history program, Gregory Sellers and Brian Tomczek, were accepted into nationally-ranked Ph.D. programs: Sellers now attends Texas A&M University, studying Early American History, and Tomczek attends the University of Delaware, studying Early American Republic and its connection to the Pacific World ● Research and collaboration with The National Endowment of the Humanities focused on Walt Whitman’s newspaper and articles ● 340 former enlisted soldiers have become commissioned second lieutenants in the university’s U.S. Army ROTC program ● Faculty from social sciences and humanities are participants in the East-West Center’s Asia Institute to develop future curriculum into existing programs ● The Phi Alpha Honor Society in the Social Work program received the Annual Service Award for community service from the national Phi Alpha organization.



COLLEGE OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION



2025 U.S. News & World Report ranks the College of Business Administration #54 in the nation for online undergraduate business programs
● Faculty are initiating research funded by two grants: the first, for $170,000, explores automated knowledge Representation for IoT Cybersecurity Regulations, and the second, for $124,124, focuses on capacity building and AI ● Received a National Science Foundation award of $349,000 for the project: Collaborative Research: CISE: A Database Architecture for Enhanced Privacy in Machine-Learning Applications ● Partnering with Workforce Solutions of Central Texas and Temple College, computer information systems faculty held a cybersecurity camp engaging 74 middle school and high school students from 30+ area schools
● Accounting students volunteered to help the IRS Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program, and received recognition from the United Way of Central Texas as an Impact Champion of the Year
● Data analytics students are helping strengthen dozens of regional non-profit agencies by volunteering data analysis expertise and using the results to improve key performance indicators for the agencies
● Upcoming opening of the state-of-the-art accounting and finance lab funded by a grant from the A&M-Central Texas Foundation ● Dr. Russell Porter honored with Fulbright Specialist Award
LEARNING & SCHOLARSHIP IN ACTION
COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND
HUMAN
DEVELOPMENT
Now a full partner with Raising Texas Teachers, a Charles Butt Foundation initiative, which provides scholarship monies for teacher candidates ● Achieved Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education ● Two Educational Leadership alumni presented at the Consortium of State Organizations for Texas Teacher Education ● Curriculum & Instruction and Educational Leadership students accompanied faculty on a study abroad opportunity to the Hacienda Santa Clara education center in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico ● Faculty from Counseling and Psychology are working with a local elementary school to provide strategies for addressing maladaptive behaviors at an individual and/or classroom level ● Psychology program implemented an honor society, Psi Chi, as well as a new student organization, the Psychology Club. Current students are partnering with Hearts and Hands to collect much-needed support for Hurricane Helene survivors ● Marriage and Family Therapy implemented an honor society, Delta Kappa, and a new student organization , Student Association for Marriage and Family Therapy ● In collaboration with the Texas A&M University System’s We Teach Texas, A&M-Central Texas offers multiple pathways for teacher certification and prepares new students for teaching careers and post-baccalaureate teacher candidates for alternative certification




HONORING A BOLD LEGACY In Memory of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Pete Taylor
He was an imposing figure to those who encountered him – not that it would have pleased him to be thought of that way. Six feet plus. Broad shouldered. A soldier’s stance. Piercing blue eyes. His gaze meant business. And when Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Pete Taylor spoke, people listened. He was well-known: a 33-year career in the United States Army. Former Commander of III Corps. A product of the greatest generation. Born to a Tennessee sharecropper’s family during the Great Depression. Learned hard work firsthand. Then, basketball where his place as team captain of revealed his capacity for leadership.
Enrolled at Middle Tennessee State University, he joined the ROTC. Maybe he’d become a high school basketball coach, he thought. Quickly instead, he became unit commander. At graduation, commissioned as a U.S. Army second lieutenant and medical service officer.
Taylor soon met Mary Jane Louwenaar, and fate bound them together. Her love of teaching military children. His love of infantry leadership. They married. Then two tours in Vietnam. He commanded combat formations at the entry level and soon promoted to company leadership. Then, the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star with Valor. Designation as Commander. Two sons and a daughter. A total of 18 moves over a 37-year career concluding in Killeen, Texas.
11th regional university in the system.
Once again, Taylor answered the call, accepting the position of inaugural Foundation Board chair. He knew that enrollment growth was crucial. And he also knew how important scholarship assistance was.
He knew that this new university would need every dollar of its funding to put faculty members in the classrooms, student affairs in place, and staff to make it go. So, he decided the university’s foundation board would pledge to raise the funds to provide institutional scholarships to make the already affordable tuition even more affordable. Enrollment grew and kept growing.

After his duty as chair concluded, and even after the passing of his friend and professional mentor, Gen. (Ret.) Robert M. Shoemaker, Taylor continued undaunted. And, when university leaders tried to convince him to allow them to honor his leadership, he deferred, again putting others ahead of himself.
Especially if it meant mentoring students and staff. His commitment made all those years ago, he once said, did not have an expiration date. Lunches with students. Cups of coffee and guidance. No fanfare. No formality. Just face-to-face.
Championed at first by the late Gen. (Ret.) Robert M. Shoemaker, the creation of a public regional university began in earnest. Together, both men rallied their “troops.” Only this time, those “troops” were leaders from business, education, local and state government, military advocates, and whole communities followed suit.
It was a long and sometimes winding road. More than once, when they petitioned the state with enabling legislation, the answer was a no. Still, they persisted. Until, in 2009, then Governor Rick Perry approved Senate Bill 629, and A&MCentral Texas was born.
The Texas A&M University System demonstrated its support even before the university was made official by legislation, forming the A&M-Central Texas Foundation in 2007 – fully two years before it was to become official as the
In November 2024, the university flag in front of Robert M. Shoemaker Founders Hall lowered in acknowledgment of Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Pete Taylor’s passing. That December, he was posthumously awarded the Honorary Doctorate of Humanities, recommended by the university president and unanimously endorsed by The Texas A&M University System Chancellor and Board of Regents.
His sons, Major General Curtis Taylor, Commanding General of Fort Bliss, and now retired Colonel Scott Taylor, attended the ceremony and accepted it during one of their father’s favorite events: commencement.
Had he been there, Taylor would have celebrated another milestone brought about by his leadership: more than 300 degree recipients graduated that afternoon, bringing the total number of degrees awarded since 2009 to 11,311. Think of it when their names are mentioned or remembered. Those who – for over 30 years – refused to let no be the final answer. So that others benefited from access to higher education. Heroes in both career and community.
COL (Ret.) Scott Taylor and Major General Curtis D. Taylor accept an Honorary Doctorate for their father, the late Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Pete Taylor, from University President Richard Rhodes.
2025 STRATEGIC PLAN
More than 700 voices came together to define our next four years, building on 15 years of a proud beginning and big accomplishments. Our work is valuable to the Lone Star State and our name says that every day. We are so Texas, it is in our name twice... TEXAS A&M University-Central TEXAS!
SHARING TEXAS VALUES
Texas A&M University–Central Texas will be a national leader in assisting students in earning high-quality credentials that lead to educational, economic, social, and personal fulfillment.
We cultivate meaningful collaborations with regional organizations, business and industry, the military community, and educational institutions to enhance academic opportunities, community service, and economic development
Our students know that their degree represents academic excellence because we develop and promote academic programs that respond to the evolving needs of our students and industries, positioning our graduates for success in their communities.
“This Strategic Plan is more than a set of strategies and objectives; it is a declaration of who we are and what we aspire to be.”
Richard M. Rhodes, Ph.D., President
2024 FISCAL YEAR DATA
