Scholarships

The Valero Alamo Bowl started a scholarship program in 2000 with 26 San Antonio high school students splitting $52,000 in scholarships.

The success of the game allowed the Bowl to add a college scholarship program in 2016 with support from each San Antonio area four-year university.  These two programs now combine to award an average of $1 million to distributed 140+ deserving students each year. This amount is the largest local scholarship total among the 42 bowl games.

Including the 2019-20 season, the Valero Alamo Bowl has now awarded over $6 million in scholarships split between 1,082 winners.

High School Scholarships:

Each December a minimum of 75 scholarship winners are recognized at the Valero Alamo Bowl Student-Athlete Scholarship Awards Luncheon presented by H-E-B. The students include at least one winner from every participating San Antonio area public and private high school.

The scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic achievement, teacher recommendations, financial need, involvement in extracurricular activities and varsity sports as well as honors received and a personal narrative.

In addition to the luncheon, the winners are annually recognized on-field during the Valero Alamo Bowl courtesy of game tickets provided by Frost and the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Interested in the 2020-2021 Valero Alamo Bowl Scholar-Athlete Program?

Seniors from San Antonio area public schools (25 miles from the city center) and long-established private schools can obtain their Bexar County Scholarship Clearing House application from their school’s College and Career coordinator.

2020 Key Dates:

September 8-9: Schools to pick up their allotment of applications and Booklets of San Antonio / Bexar County Scholarship Opportunities for High School Seniors from the Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation.
November 1: Deadline for schools to submit their allotted student applications to the Foundation (each school’s internal deadlines vary so check with your school’s Counseling Office).
December 5: Winners notified and invited to the Valero Alamo Bowl.
December 29: Winners recognized on the field during the first quarter of the Valero Alamo Bowl.

Each high school will have the opportunity to submit up to four applicants so interested students should check with their guidance departments to inquire about the status of their Valero Alamo Bowl submissions.

Applicants must be ranked in the top 20% of their class and have an ACT of 22+ or SAT of 1170+. The scholarships are awarded on the basis of academic achievement, teacher recommendations, evaluation of the applicant’s personal narrative and involvement in extra-curricular activities including awards, honors received and at least one varsity letter from participating in a sport.

To view the 2019-20 high school recipients, please click here.

College Scholarships:

The Bowl’s college program is called the Valero Alamo Bowl Community Partners scholarship and is funded by the Bowl and matching programs at all six of San Antonio’s four-year universities. The scholarship total and number of winners is announced at the start of each college football season.

On September 2020, 69 winners from University of the Incarnate Word, Our Lady of the Lake University, St. Mary’s University, Texas A&M–San Antonio, Trinity University and UTSA sharing $430,000 in awards were recognized. To view these winners, please click here.

While each San Antonio university determines its own criteria for selecting the winners, the program’s focus is junior and seniors with a high propensity to stay and work in San Antonio. The winners are annually recognized at the Rudy’s Bar-B-Q Pigskin Preview Luncheon at the start of each college football season.