We’re thrilled to announce that the San Patricio Electric Education Trust awarded $30,000 in scholarships to graduating high school seniors in our service area. In total, we awarded 15 scholarships, worth $2,000 each, to local students who will continue their education at the collegiate level in the fall.
The 2021 SPEC scholarship recipients are:
Anyssa Flores, Sinton High School
Asyria Benavides, AC Jones High School
Carson Polasek, George West High School
Devin Campos, AC Jones High School
Emily Mutchler, Sinton High School
Gabriel Bejaran Jr., Sinton High School
Isabella Garza, George West High School
Kelli Ressmann, Goliad High School
Kyndall Gonzales, Three Rivers High School
Lukas Moreno, AC Jones High School
Lynnleigh Stroman, AC Jones High School
Madison Vela, Odem High School
Natalie Garcia, Skidmore-Tynan High School
Sydney Summerville, Goliad High School
Trinity O’Brien, Sinton High School
SPEC has a long-standing tradition of supporting our communities, and especially our youth. It’s our hope that they will complete their education and come back home to put their newfound knowledge and skills back into our communities, facilitating positive change and growth. We’re proud to continue investing in the future of our service area through our scholarship program and we wish these students well as they pursue their degrees.
An independent scholarship committee, made up of former educators, evaluated applications based on leadership abilities, community involvement, academic achievement and financial need to select the 15 recipients. All personal identifying information was removed from each application to ensure an unbiased review.
SPEC’s scholarship award is paid in $500 increments over four semesters, provided the student meets the standards established for the scholarship program. Each semester, the student must show that they have successfully completed a full-time course load (12 hours or more), are enrolled as a full-time student for the upcoming semester and have maintained a grade point average of 2.5 or higher.
The San Patricio Electric Education Trust, established by SPEC in 1999, provides area students with the funds necessary to continue their education and meet their goals. Since it was founded, the fund has awarded more than $1.1 million in scholarships to area students.
The cooperative’s 2021 scholarship was open to high school seniors in SPEC’s nine-county service area. Eligible students were enrolled at an area high school or non-traditional education setting, such as homeschooling. In addition, the student’s parent or legal guardian had to be a member of the cooperative and receive SPEC service at the student’s primary address.
Support our scholarship program
The success of our scholarship program is dependent on the generous donations of our members. Typical contributions come from retired capital credit checks. Some members choose to automatically allocate their credits to the fund each year and some donate them after estate settlements.
If you would like to donate your capital credits to the scholarship program, please give us a call at 361-364-2220. Your donations help ensure the San Patricio Electric Education Trust will have the funds necessary to continue awarding scholarships for years to come. Thank you for taking an interest in our Youth!
Our scholarship program is also funded in part by unclaimed capital credits. Each year, we make every reasonable effort to locate former members who are owed capital credits. When those members cannot be located, we escheat that money to the state. Then, the state returns a portion of those escheated funds to the San Patricio Electric Education Trust to be used for our scholarship program.