Catch the replay of ARHE’s webinar: Spotlight on Texas Tech University CRC.
ARHE: Tell us a little about the Texas Tech CRC Scholarship.
Vince Sanchez: Right now, we have 120 students at the Texas Tech Collegiate Recovery Community, and all of our students that are active in our program this semester are on a scholarship. We award roughly $250,000 a year in scholarships just for people in long-term recovery. Their previous academics doesn’t really impact whether they’re eligible for scholarships or not. Their maintained GPA is required, so we do require that students maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA once they enter our program […] our average GPA runs around a 3.46.
ARHE: Tell us some success stories. What have been some stories that have completely touched your heart?
Vince: This is one of the reasons I am here. I have one student who did a semester of community college and already had a year sober when she started. She couldn’t go away to college because her mom was sick and then her mom passed away. Two months later she came to Texas Tech and was like ‘this is awful. I can’t do this, I’m so depressed and I’m not happy’. She would come into my office and cry every week. I would support her and tell her that she’s doing the best that she can. That first year was just a struggle and she stuck it out, and really got acclimated with being in Lubbock and being at Texas Tech. And then she came to me and said ‘I just want to be a nurse. I want to be one of those nurses without borders, I wanna travel and do whatever I wanna do.’ And I asked her ‘why don’t you become a doctor?’ She said that she never thought she could do that, and she did it – she just finished her residency.