CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Texas A&M University-Kingsville has seen decreasing enrollment numbers over the last several years, and now, those numbers are slowly starting to grow again.
TAMU-K President Robert Vela Jr. said there's been a 227 percent increase in grants and awards at the university, which makes a large difference on the university's growth.
"All that does is stimulate those students that really want to peruse something bigger than themselves," he said. "So research is important for us and also in attracting quality faculty to ensure that we've got something special going on here right in our backyard," Vela said.
TAMU-K's Javelina Relight Program is helping increase enrollment by targeting incoming freshman. The program allows students who took a break from their education to come back with scholarships and earn their bachelor's degree. Vela said this can change the game for non-traditional college students.
"Often times we don't have a pathway for a lot of these students that had to stop out," he said. "I wanted everyone to be able to onboard and complete their educational journey through programs like Javelina Relight and provide them scholarships because I know it's hard to make a commitment."
The Javelina Relight Program has served more than 60 students since the beginning of this year. 15 of those students graduated in August, and another 27 are set to graduate in May.
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