A major philanthropic investment is set to transform the daily lives of hundreds of undergraduate scholars in South Texas. The University of Texas at San Antonio has announced a $5 million gift from prominent benefactor Harvey Najim, establishing a dedicated fund to help students manage the rising costs of essential living expenses that extend beyond the classroom.
The newly created Harvey Najim Bold Promise Scholarship is structured to deliver $500,000 each year over a decade-long period. This funding stream is specifically targeted toward undergraduates who are already beneficiaries of UTSA's signature tuition-coverage initiative, ensuring they receive comprehensive financial backing during their collegiate journey.
While tuition assistance programs alleviate the burden of course fees, many undergraduate scholars continue to face substantial financial pressures off campus. The new scholarship aims to bridge this critical gap by providing direct financial relief for basic necessities, including apartment rent, food purchases, course textbooks, and everyday transit costs.
According to university leadership, eliminating these everyday financial stressors allows students to dedicate their energy entirely to their academic studies. By mitigating the pressure of taking on multiple outside jobs simply to cover basic living needs, the program is designed to improve degree completion and overall student well-being.
This latest contribution elevates Najim's cumulative lifetime giving to UT San Antonio to more than $25 million. This milestone firmly cements his standing as one of the institution’s most influential patrons, whose targeted contributions continue to shape student services and institutional programming across the university's growing footprint.
Najim highlighted the transformative power of higher learning when detailing the motivation behind his latest contribution. He emphasized that accessible education fundamentally alters lives and enriches communities, noting that he has directly observed the resolve and capacity of UTSA students and maintains that every learner deserves a clear pathway to thrive.
UTSA President Taylor Eighmy expressed deep appreciation for the contribution, describing it as an affirmation of Najim's enduring faith in the student body and the university's academic mission. Eighmy remarked that Najim's commitment builds upon an established track record of creating meaningful opportunities for scholars across the institution and the surrounding area to forge lasting foundations for their futures.
The financial support created by the gift extends beyond traditional first-year undergraduates on UTSA's main grounds. Eligible recipients include qualifying scholars enrolled at UTSA, the UT San Antonio Health Science Center, and transfer students entering from the Alamo Colleges District who previously participated in the AlamoPROMISE initiative.
To qualify for the new scholarship allocations, recipients must maintain residency within a designated eight-county region in South Texas. Alongside Bexar County, eligible areas encompass the surrounding counties of Atascosa, Bandera, Comal, Guadalupe, Kendall, Medina, and Wilson, anchoring the gift's economic impact firmly within the local community.
The overarching Bold Promise program originally began in December 2019 to provide a tuition-free pathway for high-achieving Texas high school graduates. At its inception, the initiative offered full coverage of mandatory tuition and campus fees for four academic years to first-time freshmen who ranked in the top quartile of their graduating class and came from households earning up to $50,500 annually.
Over time, university leaders expanded the initiative to incorporate transfer scholars, widening access for students coming through community college pipelines. The program underwent another major expansion in 2024 when the University of Texas System raised the family income eligibility ceiling to $100,000 across all nine of its academic campuses, an adjustment that opened tuition-free eligibility to an estimated 7 million additional Texas families.
Since its rollout more than six years ago, the Bold Promise framework has provided life-changing tuition relief to more than 5,000 students attending UT San Antonio. By guaranteeing full tuition coverage for four academic years to qualifying in-state residents, the university has steadily reduced the historical financial barriers associated with pursuing a bachelor's degree.
The new $5 million scholarship is not the only recent effort by Najim to support students' non-tuition needs. In the prior year, the philanthropist pledged $1.25 million in a joint partnership with UTSA and the San Antonio Food Bank, directing $125,000 annually over a 10-year period to bolster on-campus food pantries located at both the Loop 1604 and downtown campuses.
Together, these targeted philanthropic investments reflect an evolving strategy in higher education philanthropy: addressing the complete cost of college attendance rather than tuition alone. By coupling full tuition waivers with targeted funding for housing, nutrition, and course materials, UTSA and its key benefactors are creating a more secure financial environment for local scholars working to complete their degrees.
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