TEXAS COLLEGE

NEWS & UPDATES

2023 Commencement Activities

Texas College cordially invites you to join us in celebration for the 2023 Commencement Activities. The Baccalaureate Service will be hosted virtually and the Commencement Exercise will be hosted in-person, as well as live streamed. For additional information and to access the virtual streams, please click the purple button below.

2023 COMMENCEMENT ACTIVITIES

Golden Anniversary Class of 1973

Texas College cordially invites golden graduates to the 2023 Commencement Exercise where we will also recognize members of the Golden Anniversary Class of 1973. As a golden graduate, you are invited to participate in the line of march at Commencement to celebrate your 50th Anniversary. To confirm your participation, you must register in advance. For additional information, please contact the Office of Academic Affairs at (903) 593-8311, ext. 2704 or ext. 2335.

Class of 2023 Yard Signs Now Available

Graduation is quickly approaching! Proudly celebrate this achievement with your very own Texas College Class of 2023 yard sign now available through the online campus store. To place your order, click the purple button below.

GRADUATION YARD SIGN

2022-2023 Homecoming Fundraiser

GIVE ONLINE NOW

CAMPAIGN WEBPAGE

Pledge Your Gift

Texas College invites you to pledge your gift now for the 2022-2023 Homecoming Fundraiser! For the remaining months leading up to Homecoming 2023, your total pledged gift can be made in manageable monthly installments, instead of all at once. For example, over six months:

A Gold Level pledge ($1,000+) equates to a monthly gift of only $166.67;
A Silver Level pledge ($500) equates to a monthly gift of only $83.34; and
A Bronze Level pledge ($250) equates to a monthly gift of only $41.67.

To pledge your gift, please fill out the Pledge Application Form; to access this form, click the purple button below.

PLEDGE APPLICATION FORM

2023 Retool Your School

On Sunday, March 26, the 2023 Home Depot Retool Your School grant competition concluded. Although the results are unofficial, Texas College amassed over 553,000 votes throughout the month-long competition, which positioned the College in fifth place to earn a Campus Improvement Grant of $60,000. Final project proposals are currently under consideration and will be released upon their finalization.

The official results and awarding of grants will be announced at The Home Depot 2023 Retool Your School Awards Celebration on Tuesday, April 11, 2023, in Atlanta, Georgia, at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Thank you to every single individual who voted this year! Your valiant and tireless efforts are evident and greatly appreciated. Thank you, again, for your support of this initiative!

Texas College Receives Grant to Enhance Community Broadband

Texas College has been named a recipient of the Connecting Minority Communities Pilot Program (CMC), a subsidiary program of the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). The initiative is a $268 million grant program reserved for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs), and Minority-Serving Institutions (MSIs) for the purchase of broadband internet access service and eligible equipment or to hire and train information technology (IT) personnel.

Over the period of this grant, Texas College will upgrade its current internet speed/bandwidth from 1 Gbps to a minimum of 10 Gbps or higher for the main Texas College buildings and annex buildings as well. It will allow the institution to partner with the current five residential Fixed Wireless providers who cover 92.8% of Smith County (DC Texas, Skynet Country, AT&T, Texas CellNet and Nextwave) in support of efforts to offer online broadband education, awareness, training, and access to educate households in the local Tyler area, as well as throughout Smith County.

This partnership will be a "win-win," as it benefits the trainees by increasing awareness, skills, access, and equipment. Congruently, such an alliance will also benefit the companies by increasing demand for their services. Equally, the initiative will benefit the community by supporting continued operations of the for-profit community organizations that must function in order for the Tyler, Texas, community to serve as a compatible and conducive habitat for the healthy functioning of our students. However, not-for-profit organizations that support our students and our community will also be included in the effort to make Tyler a broadband connected community.

Texas College’s IT faculty and staff will train student workers and students in IT classes to provide insight and training on how broadband services can improve the management of small-business organizations within the community. Managers and/or employees, as well as volunteers in community-based organizations, will also be trained to use or better use broadband services. The training will be free, but each trainee will sign a pledge to train at least five other individuals. Ultimately, exponential increases will occur in the technological IQ of our faculty, staff, students, and our Tyler community.

Basketball All-Conference Recognitions

Baptiste Returns Home as Director of Bands

Texas College is pleased to announce that Shawan Baptiste has been named Director of Bands. Baptiste, an alumna of Texas College, brings a wealth of experience, expertise, and education to the Texas College Band, with a tenure of service as a band director and educator that spans over two decades.

With over 20 years of notable and expansive experience in the secondary public education realm, Baptiste joins the College from the Dekalb County School District (DCSD) in Stone Mountain, Georgia, where she served as the Director of Bands. As the third largest school district in Georgia, with over 138 schools and centers serving more than 92,000 students, Baptiste's leadership extended throughout the district in a multitude of impactful roles. In addition to her role as Director of Bands, she also served as the Fine Arts Department Chair, as well as provided oversight for the writing and implementation of the district wide K-12 music curriculum. Outside of Baptiste's music-related responsibilities, she also provided instructional support and served as the Multi-Tiered Systems of Support Site Coordinator, as well as gave oversight to 9th Grade Transition, which provided intervention and remediation support for ninth grade students in the subject of Math and English Language Arts. Further, Baptiste also served as a College and Career Advisor, which specifically focused on providing post-secondary education and career advancement opportunities to first generation students. Baptiste's Herculean efforts as an educator garnered her DCSD's Teacher of the Year Award in 2018.

As aforementioned, Baptiste is a proud graduate of the College; she received the Bachelor of Arts degree in Music Education from Texas College in 2009. She then pursued and completed the Master of Arts degree in Educational Leadership at Mercer University in Macon, Georgia. Baptiste also earned the Educational Specialist degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia.

Despite having joined the College less than one month ago, Baptiste has hit the ground running with an aggressive nationwide band recruitment strategy. Her enthusiasm, expertise, and innovative approach is sure to jolt exciting new life into the program. Texas College excitedly welcomes Shawan Baptiste home.

Choir to Perform at W.T. Brookshire

Conference Center Grand Opening

The Texas College Choir is set to perform at the W.T. Brookshire Conference Center Grand Opening on Thursday, April 13, 2023. The ribbon cutting ceremony will begin at 6:45 P.M. and is headlined by the Texas College Choir. The event is free and open to the public. Guests will not only be graced harmoniously by the Choir's myriad of voices, but will also have the opportunity to tour the new venue.

Prospective Students Experience Texas College

Current Texas College students gather for a group photo with prospective students during Steer Preview Day.

On Thursday, March 30, Texas College welcomed prospective students to Steer Preview Day. With over 250 high school seniors on campus, inclusive of individuals from Tyler High School, Carter High School, South Oak Cliff High School, Wilmer Hutchins High School, and Kimball High School, as well as others, the event energized the campus and was not one to be missed.

Throughout the day, the prospective students were afforded a dynamic opportunity to visit the College and tour campus, as well as meet key faculty and administrators and engage with current students. During this time, students also learned more about the admission process, academic programs, applying for financial aid and scholarships, residential life, athletics, band, choir, Greek life, and much more. Steer Preview Day excitedly culminated as six students were selected to receive scholarships for the upcoming 2023-2024 academic year.

View a brief recap of Steer Preview Day by clicking the video below.