Over the last five years, we have partnered with the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Foundation to bring to life the stories of their Dream Maker Scholarship recipients. The Foundation’s mission is to facilitate funding for students, making their dream of going to college a possibility. They have awarded over 6,000 scholarships since the Foundation began and continue to support the university and its students. We have had an incredible time telling these stories, so we were ready when they asked us to do it again.

This year we had an opportunity to feature senior and student worker Alejandra Martinez. She and her mom, Norma, experienced a lot of pain during Alejandra’s high school years. Alejandra endured family violence, her parent’s divorce, financial struggles, and heart surgery, which resulted in a pacemaker implant. “It was very hard for us. My thinking of college was very different at the time.” College did not seem possible, but her mom continued to encourage her to keep her grades up.

So she did, and when the time came to find a school, Alejandra was notified that she had been awarded multiple scholarships, including the Dream Maker Scholarship from the Texas A&M University-San Antonio Foundation. “She told me, ‘Mom, I’m going to Texas A&M University-San Antonio,’ and I cried. I cried so much. I knew there were doors that would open,” Norma told us as she smiled. Those scholarships forever changed their lives.