Help Senate of College Councils Fund Student Scholarships

Our Mission

The Senate of College Councils, or Senate for short, has one main mission: advocating for the academic experience of the UT community. Some of the things we have done in the past are helping create the International Relations and Global Studies major, increasing the availability of Pass/Fail options for students, and much, much more. Through our eight committees, we try to work towards improving all facets of student's lives, from fostering undergraduate research through our Undergraduate Research Committee to increasing the accessibility of the UT application process through our Recruitment and Retention Committee to supporting the financial wellbeing of students through our Fundraising Committee.

"I'm so grateful for the Senate of College Councils Study Abroad Scholarship. The costs of studying abroad can get pretty steep, especially with trips like mine to Botswana. I gained so much from this experience, including confidence in myself to do scary, intimidating, hard things; live immersed in a foreign country and really get to know the people and issues they face; and learn so much about climate change impacts and research projects that will carry me into my future career. Thank you for helping make this a reality for me!"

- Heather Jefts, Study Abroad Scholarship Recipient

Senate's Undergraduate Research Committee awarding the Undergraduate Research Scholarship

 

Our Method

Financial wellness is one of, if not the, most important factors of student happiness. The main way in which we strive to improve financial wellness at UT is through the scholarships we give out to students. We award five different scholarships every year:

• The Non-Traditional Student Scholarship supports students who come from backgrounds as transfer students, international students, veterans, students over 25, parenting students, or first-generation students.
• The Academic Improvement Scholarship supports students who have made significant improvements to their academic standing using campus resources.
• The William C. Powers Jr. Endowed Scholarship supports outstanding student leaders in the UT community.
• The Study Abroad Scholarship supports students enriching their academic experience by studying abroad.
• The Undergraduate Research Scholarship supports students participating in any kind of research during their undergraduate career at UT.

These scholarships are awarded by a student and staff committee based on a holistic review process designed to increasing the financial wellbeing of outstanding students. Last year, we had 277 scholarship applications and gave out over $9,500 in scholarships.

"The William C. Powers Scholarship has allowed me to dedicate more time to volunteering with a free clinic, and to researching ways to improve health outcomes in the Austin community. I am incredibly grateful for this scholarship, and the opportunities it has allowed me to pursue!"

- Liana Chen, William C. Powers Scholarship recipient

Senate's 2022-2023 Executive Board

 

Your Contribution

In Senate, we are constantly looking to improve our ability to advocate for students. Not only are we raising the money necessary to continue giving out student scholarships this year, but we are also hoping to increase the amount of money we can give out. This semester, thanks to the creation of our Scholarship Ad-hoc, we have had over 500 applications to our Non-Traditional Student Scholarship alone! Last year for HornRaisers we raised $2100, but with the increased amount of applications we are getting we hope to increase the amount of students we can award scholarships to, and to do that we need to raise more money.

Thank you for your donation, which will go entirely towards funding our scholarships and thus directly improve the wellbeing of remarkable UT students!