Amanda Porter • Independence, MO • Class of 2012

Because I attended Texas Tech University, I was blessed with multiple long-lasting friendships. Because I attended Texas Tech University, I was provided an education from a top-notch school.

Because I attended Texas Tech University, I got to bask in years of traditions that helped build me into the person I am today.

Lastly, because I attended Texas Tech University, I get to work my dream job as a Child Life Specialist. I get to support patients and families in their most vulnerable moments. I assess how kids in the hospital are coping, provide education and preparation for what they are going to experience, encourage self-esteem, work closely with members of the disciplinary teams and we create opportunities for essential life experiences (birthday parties, graduations, holiday parties, etc). It is by far the greatest joy of my life. All of this, because I attended Texas Tech University. I will forever be grateful for my time in Lubbock at this phenomenal university.

Richard Bludworth • Houston, TX • Class of 1970

Because I attended Texas Tech as a fifth generation Texan from 1966 to 1970, I discovered a part of Texas I had never known and a lot of friendly west Texas people I still appreciate today. Tech felt very isolated and required a great deal of personal fortitude to stay and learn, and learn I did. I worked many jobs while attending Texas Tech and continued my employment there as a post-graduate. My time at Tech fueled my desire to complete a task and to look for alternate paths of accomplishment.

My daughter was a graduate red raider in the early 2000's and she carries on the same sense of no job is too large or too difficult. I hope one of her two sons will continue the tradition of dust and slow speech always being in the air.

Edward Alvarado • San Antonio, TX • Class of 2008

Because I went to Texas Tech University all of my siblings also attended and graduated from Texas Tech. Living nearly six hours away we did not know much about Tech nor had we ever visited. Fortunately, Texas Tech was the first school to admit me and after campus visits to those other closer schools I made one of the best decisions of my life (without ever having to visit Tech). My family and I are proud Red Raiders!

William Kenneth Nolan • Kerrville, TX • Class of 1964

I had two brothers graduate Tech before I attended. I graduated Lubbock High in 1955 and started Tech in September 1955. My selected degree was Architecture Construction Option. In my first year I took basic courses, ROTC and fired on the Tech Rifle team. My grades were not great, but I was passing. I felt that I was good on the ROTC drill team.

On May 19, 1956, Tech was added to the Southwest Conference. I went with some friends to Clovis to get some spirits. We also bought some fireworks. When we got back to the Lubbock city limits, the police were waiting for us. Someone in New Mexico had ratted on us. We were taken to the police station but only the driver received a charge of contributing to the delinquency of minors. The driver was 21 and we were all 19 to 20. The minors were released and the driver the next day. During the next week three of us were told to report to the disciplinary board. The Dean of Men told us we would go before the board and receive probation. When we went before the board we were informed that we were dropped from school that day and would not be given grades for that semester. We would be allowed to rejoin the University the fall semester. We were not allowed to comment or challenge the punishment. We had not been charged by the police or apprehended by Texas Tech.

I went home and told my parents that I wanted to challenge this punishment. My mother said no, a Deacon of our Church was on the board. I was angry, over 18 and joined the Army the next day. Three years later, I rejoined Texas Tech. The same Dean of Men asked me if I was going to drink. I will leave it to your imagination about what I said. I pledge DTD and was kicked out. That is another story.

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Eli Vega • Hot Springs, AR • Class of 1971

I majored in art at Tech in the 1960s. It was through the great art and design professors at Tech that I was exposed to art movements like Impressionism and Surrealism. It was through my art classes that I was exposed to masters like Picasso, Salvador Dalí, Magritte, Monet, Vermeer, and others.

It was that Texas Tech art exposure that led me in 2019 to take on an ambitious project: to create my own photographic renditions of famous paintings. The project two-and-a-half years to decide on which thirty renditions to create and to find models, costumes, props, and venues. The project covered six centuries' worth of art, from the Mona Lisa to Campbell's Soup Cans; from Leonardo Da Vinci to Georgia O'Keeffe.

I wrote and published a book about the project, Renditions of Famous Paintings. The book is available online on Amazon and Books-A-Million.

Ken Schneider • Tyler, TX • Class of 1973

Because I went to Texas Tech for my degree in Advertising, I landed a terrific job in Houston just six weeks after I graduated. It was in the in-house Advertising Department of the largest department store in the city. My supervisor was a Tech graduate and, thanks to the School of Mass Communication, I had a great portfolio. I was immediately named Copywriter in charge of concepting and writing all the newspaper ads for the entire Men's Department: suits, sportswear, casual wear, shoes, underwear, everything. What I learned there launched my 40-plus-year advertising career as an award-winning advertising Copywriter.

I worked for Madison Avenue-based ad agencies, wrote and produced TV commercials in New York, Houston, Dallas and Los Angeles, and started a freelance career advertising national magazines like Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Playboy and many others.

Today, in my 70s, I'm still writing as staff Copywriter at a small college in Tyler, Texas. And it all started when I enrolled at Texas Tech back in 1969. I wouldn't have done it any other way.