Blinn College and Blinn’s Foundation hosted more than two hundred guests in Bryan Thursday at an event to celebrate the community college’s partnership with the Texas A&M system.
System Chancellor John Sharp brought up a relationship approaching nearly 50 years, as Blinn prepares to open its first building on the system’s RELLIS campus next fall.
Onion Schwartz was Blinn’s president when an agreement was made with former A&M president and system chancellor Earl Rudder. Schwartz’s son Charles, who is chairman of the A&M system board of regents, remembered his lifelong friend Walt Schoenvogel of Brenham, who chaired the Blinn Foundation board until his unexpected death six weeks ago.
The Blinn Foundation recognized Schoenvogel and Sharp with new endowed scholarships in their names.
Click below for remarks from Charles Schwartz and John Sharp.
News release from Blinn College:
The Blinn College Foundation welcomed 230 guests to celebrate Blinn College’s partnerships with The Texas A&M University System and Brazos County at Miramont Country Club Thursday afternoon, where Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp and late Blinn College Foundation Board Chairman Walt Schoenvogel were recognized with endowed scholarships in their honor.
“Today was about celebrating the incredible partnerships with the Texas A&M System and Brazos County that continue to make Blinn College such a special institution,” said Dr. Mary Hensley, Chancellor of the Blinn College District. “As we prepare to welcome a new facility at the RELLIS Campus, their friendship and support are the cornerstone for a bright new legacy of student success and community pride.”
Said Blinn Foundation Board Chairman Sam Sommer, “This event provided a wonderful opportunity for Brazos County, the Texas A&M System, and Blinn College to celebrate the unique partnerships that make this community and these incredible institutions such remarkable leaders within the State of Texas.”
The Blinn College District has longstanding partnerships with both Brazos County and the Texas A&M System. Blinn has provided educational services in Brazos County since 1970, when Allen Academy closed its junior college divisions. After consulting with Texas A&M University President Earl Rudder and the superintendents of the Bryan and College Station school districts, Blinn began offering night classes at Allen Academy and A&M Consolidated High School, enrolling 236 students.
Blinn offered courses at the Kraft Building in Bryan, the Woodstone Shopping Center in College Station, and the Townshire Shopping Center in Bryan before moving to its current Bryan Campus on the corner of Villa Maria Road and East 29th Street, where it now enrolls approximately 12,000 students. In 2012, Blinn moved its health sciences programs to the Texas A&M Health Science Center, where Blinn nursing, emergency medical services, fire science, health information technology, physical therapist assistant, radiologic technology, and surgical technology students gain hands-on experience at Blinn’s 26,000-square-foot Simulation Center.
Blinn announced last year that it was partnering with the Texas A&M University System at the RELLIS Campus, a new educational community combining a major university system and a community college at a single physical location.
In May 2016, Chancellor Sharp announced plans to create a new research and technology development campus to help companies move ideas from the laboratory to the marketplace, while also offering a new path toward a college degree. Located near State Highway 47 and Highway 21, the RELLIS Campus establishes a new educational community combining a major university system and a community college at a single physical location. Blinn’s 83,000-square-foot academic facility will serve as many as 2,500 students completing their freshman- and sophomore-level courses in preparation for upper-level courses at the Texas A&M System universities that will be located at the RELLIS Campus by 2020.
Blinn College and Texas A&M University have a proud history of developing innovative partnerships. Since 2001, the Texas A&M-Blinn TEAM (Transfer Enrollment at A&M) Program has served as the nation’s model for a collaborative, co-enrollment partnership between a major university and a community college. The TEAM Program has allowed thousands of additional qualified students to earn their degree from Texas A&M while enjoying the benefits of enrollment at both institutions, and in 2014 the program received the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board’s coveted Star Award as one of the top educational initiatives in Texas.
Texas A&M and Blinn built upon the TEAM Program’s success with the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn-Bryan and the Texas A&M Engineering Academy at Blinn-Brenham, offering students additional pathways to pursue an engineering degree from Texas A&M and helping to meet the nationwide demand for highly skilled engineering graduates.
For more information regarding Blinn’s role at the RELLIS Campus, visit www.blinn.edu/RELLIS.
The Blinn College Foundation supports programs and activities that enhance the quality of education for Blinn College students and expand the educational opportunities for the entire community. While raising funds is an important function, the Foundation also seeks to heighten community awareness of the mission and accomplishments of the College and to promote excellence in education. To learn more about the Foundation, visit: https://foundation.blinn.edu.