Mission & History

Mission

The Hispanic Scholarship Consortium collaboratively leverages resources to provide scholarships to Central Texas Hispanic students and offers a network of support that mentors and empowers scholars to graduate from college as workforce ready leaders engaged in our community.

History

In a little over nine years, the Hispanic Scholarship Consortium has served over 150 college students with a unique combination of leadership, scholarship and mentorship.

The Hispanic Scholarship Consortium, HSC, was founded in 2004 as an effort to increase the number of Hispanic students accessing higher education. The magic behind the model was an innovative funding approach where HSC would raise its own funds and then match the funds of other scholarship-minded organizations to make more substantial awards. The $1 for $1 Matching Funds Program was the fruit of this effort and to this day, HSC will match the funds of its members and benefactors $1 for $1 to create a minimum $2,000 award. In 2005, HSC was able to award $30,000 using this approach.

After the first year, it quickly became evident that in order to be truly impactful, HSC would need to offer more than simply cutting a check. The HSC board and staff tweaked the program so that once students were accepted, maintained a 3.0 cumulative GPA and took college/university courses full-time, then their scholarship would be renewed up to degree attainment. Additionally, HSC began offering workshops and training to more fully engage and support its scholars.

Those two components are now integral facets of the HSC experience. They focus HSC’s efforts on consistent support that research and best practices show to be most influential in helping students reach degree attainment.

Over time, HSC continues to evolve and grow to best meet the needs of the students served. Case management services have expanded to include mentoring, guidance, regular communication, a true cohort experience and leadership training on par with professional services offered in private sector. HSC has also grown and developed its board which is in the final stages of a strategic planning process that will guide the organization for the next three years.