Why is RICE-TMS needed?

Recruitment into Collegiate Education through Minority Scholarships (RICE-TMS) was incorporated in 1999 as a private not for profit Texas corporation (not affiliated with Rice University).

Initially, the organization began awarding scholarships in 2001 to counter a legal impediment that prohibited the award of merit awards to minority students attending Rice University in Houston, Texas. That constraint prompted many of the best minority students to attend institutions outside of Houston and the state of Texas.

The most able young high school graduating minority students have been heavily recruited by colleges and universities across the nation. In those instances, substantial merit scholarships are being awarded by those institutions to encourage Texas high school graduates to attend out of state institutions instead of remaining in Texas for their college educations.

Generally, experience on college placement of minority graduates shows that students attending institutions outside of Texas often do not return to Texas to seek employment. As a result, the talents of many of our most able minority secondary school graduates are being siphoned off from Texas because of the adverse impact of the federal court's ruling.

To partially counter this exodus from Texas, a not-for-profit private corporation has been formed to raise merit scholarship funds for highly motivated minority students with demonstrated leadership potential who will remain in Texas for their college education and attend Rice University. The corporation has received approval of its request for a 501(c)(3) ruling from the US Internal Revenue Service so that all contributions to the corporation are tax-deductible.

This Corporation is named RICE-TMS, Recruitment into Collegiate Education Through Minority Scholarships.

The recruitment and retention of some of the most able minorities in the Houston metropolitan area for education and working careers by encouraging these individuals to attend Rice University is one of the main objectives of this corporation.

At a time when the combined minority population in Houston already equals the Anglo-American sector and where projections of continuing minority growth indicate by 2030 that Hispanics will account for more than half the residents of the metropolitan area, retention of the best young minorities is essential for the overall well-being of the region.

The Houston metropolitan area already has one of the most multicultural populations in the nation. The successful input of well-educated young leaders with diverse ethnic backgrounds into the community will do much to ensure the continued success and development of the Gulf Coast.

The Corporation awarded 48 merit scholarships to minority students admitted to Rice University in the Fall of 2002. The four-year merit awards total $10,000 or twenty-five hundred dollars per year and are awarded strictly on the basis of merit and leadership potential.

Nominations of individuals for the Corporation's consideration are made by High School Counselors, teachers and administrators. The number of scholarships awarded depends on the funding received from individuals, foundations, and corporate donors. The Fund plans to award 50 scholarships in the Fall of 2003. Requests for funding will be solicited for operating and fellowship purposes. Gifts of Fellowships at the $10,000 level will be named for the donor while endowed fellowships at the $250,000 level will fund a student permanently each year and provide for inflationary increases.