A $1,000 scholarship for every senior in the Texas Tech College of Education transformed what came next for three graduates and the students they now teach.

“When I was a kindergartner, and they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, my answer was, ‘I want to be a teacher,’” said Braeley Krautsch, a 2023 graduate of the College of Education and first grade teacher at Lubbock-Cooper East.

“My whole life it’s never changed. Even now, it will never change,” she continued

This passion is common among students in Texas Tech University’s College of Education. Not every student knows at age 5 that they’ll one day lead a classroom, but somewhere in their studies, a determination takes root. It persists despite what students often hear when they say they want to teach — phrases alumnae Krautsch, Gabby Dagrosa and Katherine Kraatz each said they were told.

Why would you want to do that? You’re not going to make any money. Don’t do it.

They did it anyway.

Three years ago, Roxane and Ben Strickling set out to change what those students hear. A former teacher herself, Roxane had seen the vital roles teachers played in their communities and how they could uplift students in their schools.

She had also heard the negative rhetoric that often surrounded the profession and experienced firsthand the financial struggles many teachers face, particularly early on in their careers.

So, in 2023, Roxane and Ben established the Strickling Senior Leaders Scholarship Program — a way of telling future teachers that someone believes in them. The program provides a $1,000 scholarship to every senior in the College of Education.

“I know how hard I worked right before I student-taught and during my student teaching,” Roxane said at the time of the scholarship announcement. “I didn’t have a great deal of money, and to make all those little Mickey Mouse things you have to make and do your lesson plans, I just thought if we helped students with a boost that it would help a lot. I know it would have helped me.

“We are in such hard times right now with teachers, and education is really a worrisome thing. I think we are just hoping to make it easier for more teachers.”

The timing matters. Seniors spend their final year completing TechTeach — a full year of student teaching — then walk into a first classroom they’re expected to furnish themselves.

The Strickling Senior Leaders Scholarship Program concluded its third year in August 2026. It has reached more than 700 students.

Krautsch, Dagrosa and Kraatz are three of them.

Braeley Krautsch

In Braeley Krautsch’s family, teaching might be genetic.

Her mother is a special education teacher in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and her aunt was a first-grade teacher for many years before recently becoming an educational diagnostician.

Krautsch started early, often skipping recess to stay inside and help her mother in her classroom.

She approached college the same way. Once she decided on Texas Tech, she was all in.

“I took a tour of the Texas Tech College of Education, and all I could think was, ‘Oh my gosh, this place is like heaven,’” Krautsch said, eyes bright, smile beaming ear to ear, Double T earrings swinging.

Krautsch also had influential high school teachers and coaches who were alumni of the program.

“I knew Texas Tech was a place where great educators were created,” she said.

Krautsch’s real-life college experience was beyond even her high expectations.

What set her experience apart, and what she believes sets Texas Tech’s program apart, are the personal relationships faculty, staff and students build with one another. Despite the college’s total undergraduate and graduate enrollment of nearly 2,200 students in her final year, each of her professors knew her by name.

In fact, these relationships have continued beyond her time at Texas Tech. Krautsch remains close friends with her TechTeach cohort leader, and professors still call to check on her.

“When you actually have those personal relationships with your professors, you get a little bit of their heart for teaching,” she said fondly. “And I feel like it just keeps building up. You get every little piece of information you learned, every single personal relationship you’ve built, and it just makes you want to teach more. 

“I feel like every single professor I’ve had gave a little piece of themselves to me. And I feel like I’m just made up of all the amazingness that they poured into me.”

During her own TechTeach year, Krautsch began to see how the concepts she’d learned in class prepared her to run her own room. From developing literacy skills to teaching students for whom English is a second language, she said the foundations she gained at Texas Tech were instrumental to her confidence as a student teacher and remain so today.

“I could go on and on for hours about how much TechTeach is the biggest blessing,” she said. “And I know not just for me, but for everyone that walks through that program.”

Halfway through her student teaching year, an invitation arrived: Come back to campus. Sent to every senior in the college, it included few details beyond the date, time and location and that they needed to be there.

As Krautsch sat in the crowd with her TechTeach cohort, they chatted about what they thought was happening, how their student teaching years were progressing and whether they had any luck securing a job for the next year.

“We were all so stressed,” Krautsch said. “You’re trying to find a job, you’re trying to do all the things, and you’re worried about the financial part of it because you know, teachers aren’t making a whole lot of money. You know you’re going to have to fund your own classroom.”

Their conversation quieted as the event began. Byron Kennedy, vice president for advancement, spoke. Then President Lawrence Schovanec. Then Jesse Perez Mendez, the then-dean of the College of Education.

Mendez delivered the news: Roxane and Ben Strickling had made a gift to the college, and every senior in the room would receive a $1,000 scholarship.

“I remember when they told us, everyone started crying,” Krautsch said. “Everyone behind me was crying. Everybody was just freaking out and so excited. I was just like, ‘I can’t believe people are that generous and care so much about educators because that’s usually not what happens, ever.’”

With her scholarship, Krautsch turned a bare-bones classroom into a warm, welcoming environment her students compare to “Candy Land.” From garage sales and Goodwill to DIY and an Amazon wish list, she built a space where her students can learn and feel calm and safe.

“I don’t think (the Stricklings) really understand how much of a blessing they are to Texas Tech and to every single person going into the teaching profession,” Krautsch said. “They’re actually making such a huge impact on so many teachers. And the fact that they’ve impacted hundreds of classrooms is because they’re giving money to create that supportive environment for so many kids. So, it’s not even just the teachers they’re affecting; it’s pouring into all the students that are going into those classrooms also.”

Gabby Dagrosa

Gabby Dagrosa’s life path has been less straightforward than Krautsch’s.

She had dreams of becoming a doctor like her father, a physician in the military. As she worked through medical classes in high school, one thought kept crossing her mind.

“I don’t really like this as much as I thought I would when I was a fifth grader,” she recalled, laughing.

Considering a new career, Dagrosa thought about who had shaped her most.

She thought of Frau Rothenbusch— her German tutor, second grade teacher and principal while her father was stationed in Germany — who inspired Dagrosa as a teacher and as a woman.

She thought of Ms. Wahl, her sixth grade English teacher, who created a fun, competitive environment and introduced her to books that would leave a lifelong imprint. 

“There wasn’t a defining moment,” Dagrosa said. “It was more so just knowing that medicine wasn’t it for me and looking at the consistency that had been in my life, which was my teachers.” 

Choosing a school took her two tries.

Dagrosa graduated from a 4,000-person high school in San Antonio, and she wanted to go somewhere her classmates were not. As her fellow students dispersed to schools across Texas, Dagrosa went to her first-choice university — which was not Texas Tech.

She quickly discovered it wasn’t right for her. She didn’t fit in. She wasn’t making friends. She felt isolated.

When fall break arrived in October, she didn’t hesitate; she packed her bags and drove the five-and-a-half hours to Lubbock. She was there to visit her boyfriend, a year ahead of her at Texas Tech. But that Friday afternoon, on impulse, she went to the College of Education and asked to speak to an advisor.

“I talked with Chris Corona, and that is who I credit with getting me here. I cried in his office,” Dagrosa said, speaking frankly. “He sat me down and said, ‘Tell me your story. Tell me what’s going on.’ And I told him everything that had been happening. He never made me feel pressured to come here. He was never trying to sell something.

“He said, ‘Do what makes you happy and what makes you feel right.’ I came here on a whim, and now I never want to leave. Texas Tech was not my first choice, but it became the best choice.”

From that point onward, Dagrosa lived by the phrase “Lubbock or leave it,” immersing herself in the community at Texas Tech and in the College of Education. She wanted more than the college offered, and she told Alejandra Padgett, lead student success specialist, as much. Lena Staton, J.C. Winchester (née Miller) and a few other students had told Padgett the same.

Padgett connected them. Within one afternoon in 2023, they laid out a vision, wrote bylaws and founded Teaching Techsans, a student organization dedicated to building relationships between future educators and the Lubbock community.

The first year was spent spreading the word about the student organization and encouraging others to join, but once they got their feet under them, they ran. They created mentor-mentee programming, developed volunteer opportunities at the Burkhart Center for Autism Education & Research and local schools, and established college community events that have become traditions.

Dagrosa led Teaching Techsans as president in its second year. Under her, the group earned nominations for the Overall Outstanding Event Award and the New Student Organization of the Year Award from Student Involvement. Recognizing her leadership, she received the College of Education’s nomination for the Texas Tech Parents Association Student Academic Leadership Award in both the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 academic years. The provost chose her as the student representative on the college’s dean’s search committee, and faculty selected her as the spring 2026 graduation banner bearer.

Her time in the College of Education was marked by accolades. But ask about her classes, and she talks about learning the history of education in School, Society, and Diversity with Karen Spears.

Ask about Teaching Techsans, and she talks about her mentees Candy and Rayna, about building mums for students with learning disabilities, about the time Dean Kamau Oginga Siwatu beat them all at a bowling event.

Ask about student teaching, and she talks about her sixth grade reading and language arts students at Laura Bush Middle School, and about her mentor teacher, Charmynee Arnold.

“The primary reason I’m staying in Lubbock is community,” Dagrosa said. “I think my whole time at the College of Education with the people and the relationships that I’ve built has shaped my desire to continue fostering meaningful relationships with my students, with my peers and with other teachers.

“I learned throughout my time in college: Yes, the grades are important, but it’s also important to take time and make people feel valued, spend time with people and don’t just do it to say that you did it; do it because you wanted to do it. The College of Education has prepared me to be a great educator because of the curriculum, but also because of the community and the way that I’ve learned to navigate life and work with people.”

Starting in the fall, Dagrosa will continue teaching reading and language arts at Laura Bush Middle School, moving to eighth grade. Like Krautsch, she will use her Strickling Senior Leaders Scholarship to set up her classroom.

The Stricklings' gift was announced in the fall of Dagrosa’s second year at Texas Tech. Unlike Krautsch, she spent nearly three years knowing it was coming. 

“I don’t think that the Stricklings realize how meaningful it is to know that you’re supported coming out of college, but then also to know that someone has been cheering you on since the day you stepped foot in the College of Education,” Dagrosa said. “Knowing that that gift is waiting for you at the end of the finish line and knowing that there is a purpose: you’ve done it, now go build a classroom and put everything that you’ve learned into use so that you can be a successful educator. They are enabling the next generation to do what we need to do in schools to make change and to keep education alive.”

Katherine Kraatz

Katherine Kraatz watched her mother teach for 30 years. 

From her point of view, her mother was always grading papers, always busy, always stretched thin.

“I remember specifically thinking I will never do that,” Kraatz said, glancing back at her own classroom on the Zoom screen behind her. “Being a teacher was the last thing on my mind. I would’ve rather done anything than teach.”

Kraatz grew up in Minnesota, in a family where anything short of a four-year private Christian university counted as failure. Her sister and brother had both gone to one. Kraatz enrolled too.

Before she was scheduled to start in the fall of 2020, she decided to spend the summer in Texas, where there were fewer COVID-19 restrictions.

By the end of the summer, Kraatz had made up her mind. She was staying in Texas.

It cost her the spot in Minnesota, and a four-year university in Texas was already out of reach. A difficult stretch in high school had left her with a GPA that wasn’t competitive for an out-of-state applicant, and she didn’t know how to pay for it.

Junior college was the only door open.

She found an article that said good grades there would improve her odds of transferring where she wanted, so in spring 2021 she enrolled at Tarrant County College, a public community college in Fort Worth.

She was making progress, but she wasn’t sure toward what. She had enrolled in several classes, and to Kraatz’s surprise, her education class was the one she liked best.

She was still unconvinced teaching was for her. That changed when her mother prompted her to try substitute teaching.

Kraatz substitute taught in Keller Independent School District for two years while attending junior college, covering classes from kindergartners to seniors and everything in between.

“I loved substitute teaching,” Kraatz said. “I got to experience the learning environment, the different cultures and different classrooms, being around the teachers, just seeing education from behind the curtain.”

She knew she wanted to teach, but Tarrant County College didn’t offer all the courses she needed for her teaching certification. In her discussion groups, one name kept coming up: Texas Tech. She started researching whether it had something that would work for her.

She had two children, a 1-year-old and a 2-year-old, and couldn’t afford a four-year university while caring for them. She was trying to leave a relationship she described as unhealthy and unsafe. What she needed was a way to finish a degree without staying where she was.

Then she found the TechTeach Fast Track (2+1) model.

The Fast Track model lets candidates finish their upper-level coursework and student teaching in one calendar year, online, through a partner school district in their region.

The more Kraatz researched, the more she was certain this program was the path to a better life for her and her children.

She applied and was accepted. Because Fast Track placed candidates with partner districts across the state, she could choose where — and she chose somewhere else. Her community college grades earned her grants and scholarships, and the district where she student-taught paid her a salary.

“In a lot of ways, the TechTeach program saved my life,” Kraatz said, “because I don’t know where my kids and I would be without that program allowing me to relocate to a different part of Texas. Every cent I earned went toward feeding my children, keeping us alive and keeping us safe.”

The program was online, which she assumed would mean distance. It wasn’t — she developed close relationships with faculty and staff in the College of Education.

Just two weeks into attending Texas Tech, Kraatz found out she was pregnant with her third child. When she told her professors she would need to be out for doctor’s appointments, she expected a one-line acknowledgment: OK, sounds good.

Instead, the replies came back as questions: How’s the baby doing? How are you doing? How can I support you?

“Even though I went through the College of Education mostly online, and I was separated from campus, I still felt like I got to know the people; I still got the Texas Tech experience,” Kraatz said. “It’s a family. It’s a legacy. They care so much about education, but not only education — the individual teachers that walk through their doors.”

Kraatz graduated with her bachelor’s degree and teaching certification in 2025 and is now a fourth grade reading teacher in Snyder Independent School District. She met her now-husband, a fellow Texas Tech alumnus. They married at the club level of Texas Tech’s Galaxy Stadium, surrounded by family, friends and professors and staff from the college.

Kraatz credits the people who got her this far. Whether it was the professors who checked in on her, those who pushed her to go the extra mile or the donors who gave to scholarship programs, they are still impacting her today.

This includes the Strickling Senior Leaders Scholarship. Kraatz used it to build what she believes is the largest teacher library in Snyder ISD, a collection that ranges from preschool and kindergarten reading levels to books she would read herself. She also purchased whiteboards, markers, and engagement and sensory tools — all aimed at literacy.

Early returns are good. On MAP Assessments, a Student Growth Percentile (SGP) of 50 represents average growth over a school year.

Kraatz’s students had an average SGP of more than 70.

“I think that has a lot to do with my push for literacy and access to books and the love of reading I gave to my children (her students), and that came directly from the Strickling scholarship,” Kraatz said. “There is a lot of legacy backing you up in the education world at Texas Tech, including the Strickling family, and it gives you a sense of ‘We have your back. We’re here for you.’”