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NMSU Raises Over $1.8 Million On 'Giving Tuesday'

NMSU

http://youtu.be/dc_HG5rfnc0

Members of the NMSU community held a day of giving to support university students.

Students, faculty and staff gathered to celebrate the third annual ‘Giving Tuesday.’

The 24-hour event is a university-wide opportunity for Aggie alumni, friends and donors to give to scholarships and programs which help support students with the cost of tuition.

Raychel Key is a 2008 NMSU alumna who donated $800 toward a scholarship she said was founded after her late brother Ron, a former NMSU student and chef at Texas Roadhouse in Las Cruces.

Key said after his death 10 years ago, the restaurant and family members created the need-based scholarship in Ron’s honor to help current and past Texas Roadhouse employees pay for college.

“It’s really to help in my opinion the ones that are working full-time, have a family, can’t afford to go to school and are really struggling,” Key said.

Donations to scholarships like the Ron Key Memorial Texas Roadhouse Endowed Scholarship not only help ease the financial burden of paying for college, but Key said they also help give peace of mind.

“I’ve seen with a lot of people who worked at the roadhouse since my brother’s passing, just with the ones who have gotten the scholarship, it’s a really reduced a lot of stress,” Key said.

NMSU says last year’s Giving Tuesday raised more than $2 million in scholarship funds at its campuses statewide.

This year education officials reduced the state’s lottery-funded scholarships from 90 percent to 60 percent of tuition coverage. That means some students may have to find other ways to pay for school.

Leslie Cervantes is NMSU’s associate vice-president for alumni engagement. She said the alumni, donors and friends play a large role to make up the difference.

“That really is sometimes the difference between a student staying in school and not,” Cervantes said.

Cervantes said the university set a goal of $1.5 million this Giving Tuesday. NMSU exceeded that goal, raising more than $1.8 million.

“Helping students doesn’t happen in one day. It really is a continual work that our team does to really make it easier for our students to stay in school.”

Supporting students through graduation will create a new class of alumni who may someday be able to help future Aggies in need.

Those who would like to give can visit https://advancing.nmsu.edu/givenow.

Michael Hernandez was a multimedia reporter for KRWG Public Media from late 2017 through early 2020. He continues to appear on KRWG-TV from time to time on our popular "EnviroMinute" segments, which feature conservation and citizen science issues in the region.