At its 2017 Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner on April 19, the Association awarded $4,000 scholarships to 71 outstanding seniors from high schools in the greater Houston area.

Rahul Yesantharao of Clear Lake High School received the Jenard M. Gross Distinguished Scholar Award, the highest scholarship award the Association bestows. Rahul, who received a $6,000 scholarship, will attend MIT this fall and plans to major in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering.

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The 72 scholarship winners represent a true cross-section of academic achievement in the Houston community. The Association has been giving the awards since 1972.

The Dinner also honored Nancy Powell Moore, President of The Powell Foundation and a longtime supporter of the scholarship program.  Under Nancy’s leadership, the Powell Foundation has focused on funding innovative education initiatives across our city and state. These include efforts to promote teacher training, improve college completion rates, and advance early childhood education.  We are delighted to have the opportunity to recognize Nancy and her steadfast work for Texas children.

The Dinner was chaired by Charles F. Caldwell, a partner with Caldwell Boudreaux Lefler PLLC (CBL), where he practices energy regulatory law, focusing on pipelines. Charles is a Director and Past President of the Association’s Board.

The Phi Beta Kappa Alumni Association of Greater Houston’s 2016 Scholarship Awards Dinner honored J. Dennis Huston, PhD, Gladys Louise Fox Professor of English at Rice University and long-time member of PBK Houston Alumni Association Board of Directors, as our Honoree for Outstanding Contribution to Education. Since coming to Rice University in 1969, Dennis Huston has become one of Rice University’s most well-known professors. Anyone who enters his classroom walks away with an unforgettable experience. Professor Huston was named national Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation in 1989 and has four times won the George R. Brown Superior Teaching Award at Rice. In 1990, Houston Metropolitan magazine named him one of the Ninety Best Things About Houston. Over the past 45 years at Rice, he has taught humanities, drama, public speaking, and Shakespeare on film, and he is the author of the book Shakespeare’s Comedies of Play.

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Professor Huston was joined at the podium by his former student, dinner chairman Bobby Tudor, Chairman and CEO of Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co., LLC. Together this inspiring teacher and his former student gave our Scholarship Award Winners an example of the best that can come from higher education—not just the tools for worldly success, but a lifetime of warm relationships built on shared love of learning.

At our 2014 Annual Scholarship Awards Dinner, sixty-eight outstanding graduating seniors from high schools in the greater Houston area received $274,000 in scholarships. These students represent a true cross-section of achievement in our community. We also honored two of our city’s most deserving citizens: Jenard M. Gross and Mike Feinberg. Mr. Gross is President of Gross Investments and was honored as the Association’s Outstanding Phi Beta Kappa Alumnus. He founded the Phi Beta Kappa Houston chapter and the Houston scholarship program. Our honoree for Outstanding Contribution to Education was Mike Feinberg, Co–Founder of KIPP Houston.
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