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Texas State’s musical theater program is awarding current and incoming musical theater freshmen free tuition with its “Last-Dollar” scholarship initiative.
Kaitlin Hopkins, former head of the musical theatre program and Broadway veteran, created the “Last-Dollar” scholarship initiative to provide affordable education to musical theatre students at Texas State.
Hopkins started Texas State’s musical theater program in the fall of 2009 with the goal to raise enough money to eventually fund her students’ education with a scholarship for their tuition.
“Being a state school and being a Hispanic-Serving Institution and… an institution that caters to a large percentage of first-generation students… it was important to me that we found a way to make getting an education in the arts affordable and accessible,” Hopkins said.
According to Hopkins, it took the department 12 years to receive the funding to offer this scholarship, which covers tuition for musical theater freshmen throughout their college careers. The first recipients are the current musical theater freshmen, and the scholarship will be available for the incoming musical theater freshmen class of 2029.
“It’s getting more expensive to get an education [and] a college degree,” Hopkins said. “When you’re talking about students in the arts, especially the performing arts, it can be difficult to convince your parents to help you.”
Cassandra Abate, co-head of the musical theatre program and the “Last-Dollar” program, said students in the musical theater program can benefit from graduating debt-free because their future careers may not be financially stable in the beginning.
“Being an artist is being of service,” Abate said. “[The scholarship] allows us an opportunity to really continue to explore how to make theater accessible. Theater is such an important part of our culture and of our community, and so to be able to continue to find ways to foster it, to be able to thrive, is vital and it’s very encouraging.”
According to Hopkins, the “Last-Dollar” scholarship initiative is unique because it is the only undergraduate musical theater program nationwide that covers the remaining tuition not covered by grants and scholarships. She is proud of what the faculty accomplished “in record time” but doesn’t want to stop there.
“But to me, it doesn’t feel like a destination, it feels like… a stepping stone on a larger vision that every student that comes into this program has all their financial needs met so that they can get an education [and] get a degree in something they’re highly skilled at that they love,” Hopkins said.
Aaron Brown, “Last-Dollar” program co-head and assistant professor in the department for theatre and dance, said the scholarship can help musical theater students focus on their goals and dreams instead of tuition fees.
“There’s so many choices that people [make] that are dictated for them by finances and economic realities,” Brown said. “So, what might have seemed impossible, is now possible… we want people to dream big and to know that there are ways to make your dreams come true.”
For more information on how to apply to the musical theater program and the “Last-Dollar” scholarship, contact Lauren Jurgemeyer at [email protected].
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