Together, we can offer a brighter future for children in Texas
Shelley Rogers, Vice President, Development
ACE Scholarships was founded on the belief that every child can succeed if given the opportunity to change their story. Count me in.
As the new Vice President of Development for ACE Scholarships in Houston, I am honored to join a team that has the passion, determination, and experience to provide children from low-income families with equal access to quality schools, and, as a result, dramatically decrease the number of students in our state who fail to complete high school.
I first learned about ACE Scholarships through an article introducing Alex Cranberg as a member of the University of Texas System Board of Regents. In addition to his many accomplishments in the oil and gas and alternative energy industries, the article highlighted his leadership in education and philanthropy, including helping found Alliance for Choice in Education (ACE) Scholarships in Colorado in 2000. The organization has since provided 23,000 scholarships and empowered thousands of low-income families in six states with financial support to access private schools in grades K-12.
Now residents of Houston, Alex and his wife Cathy have inspired a new group of business leaders to join them in launching ACE Houston. They recognize the crisis in the American education system and refuse to wait years or decades for a solution that may never come.
It is remarkable that in its first year, even in light of the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey, a projected 350 students from low-income families in Houston will receive ACE Scholarships, averaging $1,800 for K-8, and $2,800 for 9-12, allowing them to attend one of the many outstanding private schools in the Houston-Galveston area.
Harvey wasn’t prejudice or picky about what he took in his wake. Harvey effected every economic status, rich, poor and everything in between, every religion, every political party and opinion, every education level. In the worst devastation I witnessed the greatest love, unconditional, humanitarian, selfless love that also crossed every economic, religious and political barrier…with more force than the storm!
As a sixth-generation Texan, born and raised in Houston, I was honored to serve as Development Director at the Free Enterprise Institute, an organization dedicated to educating leaders on the ideals and traditions that make America exceptional. I am grateful to the remarkable leaders at the Institute who have offered support and encouragement during my transition.
It is a tragedy that 30 percent of students in the Houston Independent School District (and 17 percent of students statewide) do not graduate from high school, increasing the likelihood of them being stuck in low-paying jobs and not being able to provide for themselves and their families.
My passion for ACE Scholarships is rooted in the belief that empowering families with the ability to choose the best education for their children is the best investment we can make in the lives of those in need, and in the future of our great state. Together, we are going to change that for families in financial need in Houston through ACE Scholarships.
I look forward to getting to know you better in the coming months. Please reach out to me at any time at [email protected]
