The national award-winning Texas Rangers/Richard Greene Scholarship initiative is dealing with the challenge of achieving the desired outcomes of the program in the year of Covid.
The Texas Rangers Foundation launched the unique enterprise in 1997 upon the end of my 10-year tenure as the city’s mayor, with the primary objective of developing future leaders.
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And, yes, I am and will always be greatly honored by the team’s decision to put my name on what became the recipient of the coveted Major League Baseball’s Commissioner’s Award for Philanthropic Excellence.
Readers may recall previous Arlington Today reports that describe how the scholarship program is designed to work. After an exhaustive application, screening, and final acceptance process, a junior-year student in each of Arlington’s high schools is selected to participate in leadership training internships rotated through community and public service organizations during their senior year.
The objective is to expand the knowledge of outstanding students of how the community, and our society in general, is organized and how it works to serve the needs of residents and develop careers in an expansive business world.
They spend time at Arlington City Hall, the Greater Arlington Chamber of Commerce, the Arlington Independent School District administration building, engage in the work of Mission Arlington and the River Legacy Living Science Center.
Rotations are included through the North Central Texas Council of Governments, Tarrant County Commissioners Court at the Arlington Sub-courthouse, Texas Health Arlington Memorial Hospital, and other venues that may provide insight into career fields of the students interests.
There is a generous $10,000 college scholarship that comes with the selection that, on a cumulative score, has resulted in more than $1.2 million funded by the Rangers since the inception of the program.
Moreover, in recognition of how the outcomes that have been witnessed in the lives and careers of those who make up the alumni of the program, the Rangers, under the leadership of the Foundation’s executive director Karin Morris and her staff, have extended their commitment beyond the original 20-year plan and now will continue it in perpetuity.
As in so many other things that used to be normal processes and procedures, this year has been a special challenge to provide the current class of scholars the same outcomes as before only with the modifications necessitated by adopting all the safety protocols with which we all are now familiar.
That assignment was accepted by the program’s AISD teacher, Beverly Schreiber, who has managed the students for the past three years with exemplary dedication and unwavering commitment to see the desired results fully achieved.
Beverly, who also has been teaching marketing at the AISD Dan Dipert Career and Technical Center, announced her retirement a few months ago. She is looking forward to a possible move with her husband, who is also in retirement, to Florida.
She will be sorely missed, as was her predecessor, Diane Brewer, who managed the scholars for the first 20 years. Beverly’s replacement is Alyce Monroe, and the hand-off took place at the end of the fall semester. Alyce has the advantage of having worked with Beverly and knows she continues to be available for any further guidance that may be needed.
Both Beverly, Alyce and I recently participated in a Zoom call with this year’s students, Louis Alexander, at Arlington High, Kennedi Arceneaux at Bowie, Siam Tungnung at Lamar, Christin Williams at Martin, Servando Olvera at Sam Houston and Ethan Syed at Seguin.
They all, of course, have had their senior year significantly altered in many ways, and, in spite of the challenges, have been promised by their teacher – along with my wife Sylvia, who assists with all the coordinating of schedules; Karin Morris with the Rangers Foundation; and AISD Administrator Susan Patterson – to continue the innovation and alteration of the internships and rotations to achieve results that will provide a quality experience for each of them.
