Texas Tech’s College of Education teaching candidates have received nearly $2.9M in grants since 2018 to better prepare teachers for the classroom.
Texas Tech University students Dulce Hudgins and Valerie Jaure have been striving – and training – to be teachers in the neighborhoods and districts in which they grew up. Dulce graduated in May from the university’s College of Education in its TechTeach program with a Bachelor of Science in Education, and Valerie will follow late next year with the same degree, finishing in December 2026. Their coursework and hands-on experience come from the hybrid model, TechTeach Across Texas – taking classes online and student teaching in person – in those same districts they are familiar with.
Both young women are first-generation students and are excitedly anticipating being successful educators. In large part their confidence is due to help with scholarships and mentoring from the Charles Butt Foundation and its Raising Texas Teachers initiative, which aims to elevate the teaching profession across Texas. The organization’s purpose is to pursue a more equitable and prosperous future for all Texans through education and community partnerships.
Since the 2018-19 academic year, the Charles Butt Foundation’s partnership with the College of Education has supported 294 students to the tune of $2.48 million through 2024-25, assisting anywhere from 26 to 54 scholars per year. For the upcoming 2025-26 school year, the college has received an additional $416,000 to fund 20 more aspiring teachers, bringing the total to nearly $2.9 million.
Early Aspirations
Dulce has dreamed of being a teacher from a young age. She recalls having a fourth-grade teacher from Texas Tech who influenced her in several ways.
“Her classroom was covered in Texas Tech. I was like, ‘That's what my classroom is going to look like,’” Dulce beamed. “But she also served as a cultural and linguistic bridge and a supportive mentor—not only guiding me through the transition from bilingual to monolingual education, but also helping my parents understand and engage in my learning journey.”
Dulce was number six of seven children raised in a predominantly Spanish-speaking household in Burnet, Texas, only about 15 minutes from Marble Falls, where she’s doing her student teaching placement at an elementary school. She will pursue being a bilingual or a dual-language teacher – wherever there may be a job for her – because she lived the experience of speaking both languages growing up and needing extra help learning it all.
“A lot of our students are at different English levels; their proficiency is very different, one from the next,” Dulce explained. “We have to meet their English proficiency level and help them grow from there. I remember how I went through it and how it was so hard, but making it an enjoyable experience is very meaningful for the students and for myself.”
Although the process to apply for the Charles Butt Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers is rigorous, Dulce says earning it was worth all the work that went into it. At the time she applied, the process included three essays and a unique video assignment demonstrating their teaching skills. Texas Tech program leaders review and select candidates who then have final interviews with the foundation. Recipients receive $4,000 per semester, so Dulce earned $8,000 for the 2024-25 academic year.
Dulce describes the scholarship as “very generous,” covering her books, tuition and supplies for each semester and allowing her to live with her parents while completing requirements. Participating in the program gave her other sorts of opportunities as well.
Aside from the financial boost, the Charles Butt Foundation provides Scholars with mentorship and professional development opportunities. The prospective teachers are required to participate in at least three of the five professional development opportunities offered. Dulce completed all five because, she said, she needs “all of the experience.” She was able to implement most of that learning in real time as she executed her student teaching responsibilities in her kindergarten class.
Dulce mentioned other highlights of being a Charles Butt Scholar included completing a book club study and meeting to discuss it with a facilitator. They were also given direction (and nudging) from Texas Tech’s site coordinator for the grant, Traci Jimenez, who communicated frequently with the students with updates and reminders to keep them successfully on track toward graduation.
That guidance from Jimenez was certainly needed, because, on top of everything else, Dulce married Tim Hudgins, also a Red Raider, in June 2024. He is working toward an online degree in general business through the Jerry S. Rawls College of Business and is set to graduate in May 2026 – but not before they welcome a baby this July.
Building on the Foundation
Sherre Heider, professional development facilitator with the TechTeach Program, says the Texas Tech focus has evolved over the years with the foundation’s mission of elevating the teaching profession in Texas. Initially started by the previous chair, Doug Hamman, to help career changers become teachers, the scholarship’s emphasis has shifted to recruiting students interested in teaching, aiming to remove barriers to entry.
Along with Texas Tech, the foundation supports 24 university-based teacher preparation programs across the state through Raising Texas Teachers, and 63% of new teachers certified through university undergraduate programs are trained by these universities.
Heider said most recipients actually receive more than the $4,000 per semester to support their scholastic endeavors, for specific programs like Texas Tech’s 2+1 and 2+2 programs, referring to the schedules that include two years of community college followed by either one year or two years of Texas Tech courses and student teaching.
“Funding also can include travel to conferences, along with the other required professional development, and they even provide welcome boxes for new teachers,” Heider explained. “The Charles Butt Foundation team is extremely collaborative and responsive.”
To be eligible for the scholarship, students must be committed to teaching in the Texas public school system in either a Title 1 or majority economically disadvantaged school or in a priority subject area (math, science, special education or bilingual). Applicants must also exemplify the knowledge, skills and values listed in the application material. Preference is given to Texas residents.
Aspiring teachers can apply in the fall of any year between their senior year of high school and third year of college or prior to entering an eligible master’s program.
Paying it Forward
Valerie Jaure grew up in the Fort Worth Independent School District in a family of five – the middle child between two brothers and her parents. Even though education has always been important in her family, she is the first to attend a university.
Whereas Dulce’s early schooling experience was one of being supported and seen, Valerie’s was seemingly the complete opposite.
Quickly revealing this aspect that shaped her, Valerie acknowledges she also is a student with a disability, taking her time to grasp information, always needing an inclusion teaching assistant, a teaching helper who supports students with disabilities in mainstream classrooms.
“As I grew older, I realized that many of those students, they get overlooked. A lot. And I was part of that,” Valerie confessed, swallowing a lump in her throat. “And as I grew older still, I knew that’s really what I want to do – get my bachelor’s degree in special education and bilingual education. I want to make sure those kids feel welcome, and the parents know that nobody is different in my classroom. I don’t want them to feel how I felt as a kid.”
After her two years at community college, Valerie is in her first year of the 2+2 program, student-teaching in a monolingual fourth-grade classroom in Burleson ISD, a suburb just a 20-minute drive south of her home in Fort Worth. In her second year she will pursue the special ed and bilingual requirements, finishing with a Bachelor of Science in Education with a concentration in Teacher Prep Elementary.
With the Charles Butt Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers, Valerie can clearly visualize her path to becoming a principal by graduating from the TechTeach program and continuing to get her master’s.
She recalled the exact moment she found out she was chosen as a recipient of the scholarship a few months later, in the tutoring lab at Tarrant County College, when she finally got the email.
“It said, ‘Congratulations, Valerie, you’ve been granted the scholarship…’ and I cried because … I don’t want to get emotional now, but truly God has blessed me tremendously, and this was one prayer that I really needed answered financially.”
The professional development also has helped Valerie prepare for her future in practical ways, allowing her to visit specific schools in the Burleson district, meet with principals and see how the campuses work, even down to designing lesson plans.
Valerie feels incredibly lucky to have been chosen for the scholarship, or she might have faced the same situation as her older brother, Giovanni. He would have been the first in the family to go to college, but due to financial reasons, he had to pause his studies and start working full-time to cover his school expenses. He is now attending the University of North Texas.
She has also been helping her little brother, Bryan, with his schoolwork and encouraging him to apply for scholarships because they have provided a significant financial lift for her family. And it paid off – Bryan was accepted to Texas Wesleyan University on a full ride. They are all the first in three generations to attend college.
With an if-I-can-do-it-anyone-can attitude, Valerie eagerly encourages those who want to become teachers to apply for the Charles Butt Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers, citing the various components, from professional development to monthly cohort meetings to the hands-on, close-to-home student teaching – and the financial support, of course.
“Who would have known I’d be accepted?” she shrugged, with a grin.
“The Charles Butt Foundation’s dream of ‘a more equitable and prosperous Texas’ resonates so deeply because I believe education is the very heart of a thriving future,” Valerie said solemnly. “This program hasn’t just taught me how to teach; it’s instilled in me the profound responsibility of nurturing young minds, knowing that their growth will directly contribute to the strength and prosperity of our state. It’s a calling I now embrace with all my heart.”
Find information here about the requirements for institutions to be a partner of the Charles Butt Foundation Raising Texas Teachers initiative as well as application dates and requirements for applying for the Charles Butt Scholarship for Aspiring Teachers.