In front of a crowd of some 300 fellow students at Jefferson High School, I’Tasia Rainge was awarded Texas Woman’s Chancellor’s Endowed Scholarship — the university’s most coveted and the one with the largest monetary value.

The scholarship covers tuition and fees and other expenses for four years, and is valued at roughly $60,000. Texas Woman’s offers one such scholarship a year, typically to a Texas high school graduate with an outstanding record of service, extracurricular activity and academic achievement. Besides the monetary award, Chancellor Carine Feyten will serve as Rainge’s mentor during her time at TWU.

Rainge plans to enroll at TWU in fall 2024, and will pursue a bachelor’s degree in nursing.

The scholarship was awarded May 17 during a high school assembly in the northeast Texas town of Jefferson, about 200 miles east of Denton. Although other awards were presented during the assembly, Rainge had no idea she would be awarded the scholarship, or that any representatives from Texas Woman’s would be there in person to present it to her.

Javier Flores, EdD, TWU’s vice president for enrollment management, presented the award to Rainge, who appeared genuinely moved by the presentation and the reaction of her classmates.