Scholarships

BEC Scholarship Program

Bandera Electric is committed to the leaders of tomorrow, and we encourage members and their children to work hard and follow their dreams. We offer scholarships to local high school and home-schooled graduating seniors and college students. BEC scholarships may be applied toward tuition, fees, and expenses at any accredited 4-year university or college, junior college, or TEA-approved technical or trade school that offers an associate degree.

The scholarship program was established in 1998 by Bandera Electric Cooperative to encourage and assist in the educational pursuits of its members and their immediate families. Since then, we have awarded $250,000 in scholarships!

Each year, Bandera Electric awards 10 – $2,500 scholarships.

Recipients of the scholarships will be chosen based on the following:

• Financial necessity
• Written essay
• Participation in community/school activities

Eligibility

• Parent(s)or legal guardians must be members of Bandera Electric Cooperative or receive BEC service at their residence and provide written verification from the member-owner of the account.
• Graduating high school seniors must have maintained at least an 80% on a 100% scale.
• Students currently enrolled in post-secondary educational course work must have maintained a minimum cumulative 2.50 GPA on a 4.00 scale at an accredited 4-year university/college, junior college, or TEA-approved trade school.
• Applicants must meet general admittance requirements of the accredited 4-year university/college, junior college, or TEA-approved trade school to which they apply to receive funds.
• Applicants may only win once.

How to Apply

The 2025-26 scholarship application will open online September 15, 2024.
The deadline for applications is January 15, 2025.

What you’ll need:

• BEC Member Account Number and Service Address.
• Academic information including your GPA, ACT, or SAT scores (if applicable), and your most recent High School or College transcript.
• 2 letters of reference written within 3 months of application date.
•  Financial and family information including household or applicant income, proof of income, work experience and/or history.
• A list of your extracurricular activities and academic awards.
• An essay of 500 words or less answering a prompt. 1 of BEC’s Cooperative Principles is Education, Training, and Information. Prompt: How do you plan on using your education, training, and information to better your community and/or country?
• A clear, high quality student photo. If you are selected as a winner, this photo will be used in digital and print publications, so make sure it’s a good one!

Winners are chosen by the New Braunfels Area Community Foundation (NBACF). The NBACF will field all applicants, filter those applicants based on criteria set up by BEC, and administer and monitor all scholarship grants through an anonymous process.

If you have questions about the BEC Scholarship application process please contact NBACF at (830) 606-9597 or by email.