When Raveena Smith ’12 takes her place in a neonatal intensive care unit or on the staff of a children’s hospital, she’ll be able to focus on her patients rather than worry about how she’ll pay back student loans. That’s because of the need-based financial support the nursing major has received at TCU.

“Financial aid was one of the biggest determinants in my college selection,” Raveena remembers. “I needed to get the best education at a cost I could afford. Financial aid made it possible for me to attend TCU at a cost that would not put me so far in debt that I would be fighting my way out for a long time.”

Raveena came to the University with a combination of TCU, private, state and federal scholarships and grants. But that wasn’t enough.

“There was a point when I could no longer afford TCU,” Raveena recalls. “It broke my heart when it hit me that I had to leave. I actually withdrew from the university and enrolled in a small community college in my hometown.

“A couple of days after I left, I got an email from financial aid officer Mike Scott saying that the TCU family did not want to lose me, and he would do all he could to try to get me additional financial support and back to TCU. The following week, I was re-enrolled and sitting in class with my fellow Horned Frogs. It really moved me that the University did so much to keep me part of the Horned Frog family, and it really deepened my love of this school. I bleed purple for life!”

That’s fitting. Because of the gifts of others who bleed purple, Raveena and hundreds of her classmates will walk across the stage in Daniel-Meyer Coliseum in May, TCU diplomas in hand.

But the need is still great. Over the past five years, TCU has doubled scholarship support to undergraduates and increased support for graduate students by 50 percent. Yet there remains $57 million in unmet need this academic year. The Campaign Scholarship Initiative is designed to narrow that gap.

Visit The Campaign for TCU website.