6th Grade College Pride

I am the 6th grade writing teacher at Austin Achieve Middle School.  Austin Achieve is a tuition-free charter school on the east side of Austin, with a mission of preparing our scholars to attend and excel at top universities. As part of our mission, each classroom is named after a college, usually the teacher's alma mater. As an Aggie, I have been working to bring the Spirit of Aggieland to Austin this year, teaching my class about all of the rich traditions that Texas A&M has to offer. We've even learned a yell or two!

For the holidays this year, I had a goal of providing my students with Aggie t-shirts. Most of our scholars will be first generation college students, and although they are allowed to wear college shirts to school, most do not have one to wear. I intitially set out to get donations of old maroon shirts that I could give them. However, the response of the Aggie Network has been so overwhelming, I feel that working together, we can do much more. 

I am asking for this money to not only buy my class Texas A&M shirts, but also to fund our spring field trip to Aggieland! We went on field trip to UT (ahem) last week, and each scholar had to pay a portion of the funds. It would be an incredible gift to them to cover those costs. I would also like to buy a t-shirt for all of the 6th graders to be able to represent their respective colleges, which are Texas State, the University of Houston, UC Santa Barbara, Haverford College, and Auburn University, because not everyone is lucky enough to be an Aggie. 

With 170 total 6th graders, estimating about $25 each for a shirt and the field trip costs, I am setting a goal of raising $5,100 before December 19, our last day before winter break! I would love if you could help me get these incredible scholars excited about college! Thanks and gig 'em!