JANUARY 4, 2001

KERRVILLE—The Cailloux Foundation created a scholarship program designed to benefit high school graduates in the Hill Country last year. Leakey High School has been added to the program beginning in 2001. Twelve students from ten Hill Country communities are now attending institutions of higher learning across the state with funding from the program. An additional 12-graduating seniors will be selected as Cailloux scholars from high schools in Bandera, Center Point, Comfort, Fredericksburg, Harper, Ingram, Junction, Kerrville, Leakey, Medina, and Rocksprings next March. Leakey has been added to the scholarship program.

The awards will be up to $10,000 per recipient annually and are for undergraduate study only. The scholarships are renewable for up to four years for a maximum multi-year award of $40,000 per student. Recipients must attend a public university in the State of Texas. At its full maturity the program will have up to 48 students participating as scholarship recipients.

"A counselor from one of the smallest communities served by this scholarship program told me that this was the best thing that had ever happened to their small school", said Betty Vernon, Program Director for The Cailloux Foundation, "he told me that students and their parents were streaming into his office looking for ways to improve their grades and test scores. This is what we hoped for when the program was established," she added.

A limited number of applications will be made available to each eligible Hill Country high school for distribution among students selected by a local scholarship committee. These applicants must have a minimum Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) score of 1017. They must also have a minimum grade average of 85 and be in the top one-third of their graduating class.

Final selection of recipients for the scholarship awards will be made by Scholarship Management Services, a division of Citizens Scholarship Foundation of America in St. Peter, MN. The scholarship program will utilize standard and comprehensive recipient selection procedures including the consideration of past academic performance and future potential, leadership and participation in school and community activities, work experience, statement of career and educational aspirations and goals, financial need, unusual personal or family circumstances, and an outside appraisal such as a letter of recommendation. Recipients will be announced in early April of next year.

Floyd A. and Kathleen C. Cailloux created The Cailloux Foundation in 1994. The Foundation’s mission is to perpetuate their vision through the betterment of individual lives, with emphasis on the needs of disadvantaged children. Mr. Cailloux was co-founder of Keystone International and was instrumental in the company becoming a leader in the manufacturing and marketing of industrial valves for general industry. In 1981, Mr. and Mrs. Cailloux moved from Houston to Kerrville, Texas where they became very involved in charitable endeavors in the Texas Hill Country and around the state. The Foundation continues these endeavors by quietly awarding grants to eligible nonprofit organizations mainly in the Hill Country.

For more information about The Cailloux Foundation Scholarship Program please go to the Scholarship Program section on this site.n