Successful Rattlers
by Nathaniel Miller
When Belyn Thompson (B.B.A. ’26) moved out on her own, her list of concerns began to grow.
As an undergraduate at St. Mary’s University, the San Antonio native had rent and utilities to worry about, alongside assignment deadlines and work. The last thing on her mind was paying to study for the GRE, the standardized test accepted for many graduate school applications.
Hope came during a McNair Scholars meeting with the late Jennifer Zwahr-Castro, Ph.D. The Director of the McNair Scholars Program directed her to the little-known Student Success Fund. The fund, as part of the Rattler Student Success Center, could cover the $400 course.
After applying and being awarded funds, Thompson felt relief knowing there was one less thing on her plate.
“I could have tried to scrape the money together, but as a college student and paying my own bills, I felt nervous about it all,” she said, adding she will be returning to the Greehey School of Business to pursue her MBA.
The Student Success Fund was founded in 2024 by then-Vice Provost for Student Success Stephanie Ward, Ph.D., through various donations. Its goal is to alleviate financial burdens for students seeking to further their education or pursue their future vocations.
Those burdens include paying for graduate school applications and exam preparation, funding for travel to conferences and workshops, and subsidizing pay for students who take unpaid internships.
Undergraduates, graduate students and law students are eligible to apply and can receive up to $2,000 total through their entire St. Mary’s tenure. Multiple applications can also be submitted as long as students do not reach the limit.
Thompson is one of many students who have benefited from the Rattler Success Fund. Others include an undergraduate student who received a stipend, which enabled them to accept an unpaid internship in New York City. A graduate student paid travel expenses to present and network at an Industrial/Organizational Psychology conference in New Orleans. A law student was able to take an unpaid internship at the Bexar County Public Defender’s Office thanks to a stipend provided by the fund.
Applications must include a 200-word personal statement, a professional résumé and, often, documentation including quotes and expected expenses. A committee of faculty and staff reviews applications before making a decision.
About $105,000 has been awarded to 70 students since April 2024, Student Success Operations Coordinator Samatha White said.
“This is a very exciting program,” White said. “Students who submit applications are doing wonderful things, and a lot of them would have been struggling without the funding that we have given them.”
Samatha White“Our students are doing amazing things, and we want to be able to continue supporting them.”
The number of submissions varies each semester, but funding is always needed. Anyone interested in donating can call the St. Mary’s University Office of Advancement at 210-436-3802 or donate online.
White said she hopes to see donations continue to help students take opportunities that might otherwise have passed them by because of a lack of funding.
“Our students are doing amazing things, and we want to be able to continue supporting them,” she said.
