Through its Financial Aid for Science and Technology (FAST) Student Grant Program, Trinity University is awarding an estimated 176 individual scholarships of $4,600 per year to academically talented students who demonstrate financial need, offsetting a significant portion of the need-based loan portion of each student's financial aid package. The scholarships are renewable by individual students for up to four years. Through the program, Trinity especially seeks to recruit first-generation college students in order to reach institutional goals of increasing the diversity of students majoring in a broad range of STEM disciplines, including Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering Science, Geosciences, Mathematics, and Physics & Astronomy. Moreover, FAST student grants are also available to eligible transfer students matriculating at Trinity after commencing their college careers on one of the campuses of the Alamo Community College District. The FAST Student Grant Program is linked strongly with two other Trinity programs: an Upward Bound program for secondary students at area high schools and a Ronald E. McNair Post-baccalaureate Achievement Program for undergraduate students moving on to doctoral studies.
The FAST Student Grant Program has three major objectives:
1. To decrease the loan indebtedness of a significant number of academically talented students majoring in the STEM disciplines by offering multi-year scholarships, thereby making if easier for economically challenged students to attend Trinity University and complete their degree within four years; 2. To increase the diversity (economic, ethnic, cultural, physically-challenged, and/or gender) of students majoring in the STEM disciplines , with a primary focus on first-generation college students; and 3. To provide academic support, faculty and peer mentoring and career placement counseling services to scholarship recipients by utilizing existing Trinity practices and programs and by strategically strengthening and focusing these programs to improve the college experiences of the recipients and enable their success.
