UNT College of Education Receives $1 Million Endowment to Fund Scholarships for Students Pursuing Superintendent Certification

The University of North Texas College of Education has signed a memorandum of understanding with Dallas-based Southwest Securities, Inc., establishing a $1 million scholarship endowment to benefit students in the college's superintendent certification program.

The Southwest Securities Superintendent Certification Scholarship will allow students to have approximately half of their tuition restored upon the successful completion of their coursework.

Southwest Securities was founded by Don Buchholz, who continues to serve as SWS Group's chairman of the board. Buchholz, an alumnus of UNT, has served as a member of the UNT System Board of Regents since November 2007. He was awarded UNT's "Outstanding Alumnus Service Award" in 1999 and the "Distinguished Alumnus Award" in 2001.

"We are delighted to enter this partnership with Southwest Securities. This relationship will not only help our future education leaders financially, but also professionally," said Dr. Jerry Thomas, dean of the UNT College of Education. "Southwest Securities has agreed to use its powerful alliances in the business community to bring in top-level executives to teach our students the valuable business skills that will help take education to the next level."

Thomas adds that additional funding will be provided to establish an endowed academic chair in honor of Mike Moses, former Texas Commissioner of Higher Education. "And, again, we have Don and Ruth Buchholz to thank for their generosity," he said.

Buchholz said, "It is an honor to recognize our friend and colleague Mike Moses, who has provided educational leadership throughout the state."

Starting this semester, the College of Education is expanding its superintendent certification program by not only offering courses at UNT's Denton campus, but also at satellite locations in Dallas and Fort Worth.

The first students to participate in the new satellite program are administrators from the Education Service Center Region 10, which includes schools in nine counties, including Dallas County. This group of 15 students began courses at Universities Center in Dallas on Jan. 21 (Wednesday).

The college hopes to partner with the Texas Leadership Cooperative (TLC), a one-year preparation program for superintendent certification offered by the Region 11 Education Service Center in Fort Worth, to offer a more comprehensive program beginning this summer. The new combined program in Fort Worth would be targeted at administrators in Region 11, which encompasses 10 counties including Tarrant County.

Participants in UNT's superintendent certification program must have completed their master's degree. Participants in the satellite programs also must be nominated by their district superintendent, who becomes their mentor during the certification process.

The superintendent certification program encompasses 15 hours of coursework, including a professional internship. If accepted into the doctoral program in education at UNT, 12 of the 15 hours that students take can be applied toward their doctoral degree.

Southwest Securities, Inc. is a subsidiary of the SWS Group, Inc. (NYSE: SWS), a Dallas-based financial services company. Southwest Securities provides a broad range of financial services to individual, corporate and institutional investors, broker/dealers, governmental entities and financial intermediaries. The firm is the largest, full-service, New York Stock Exchange member firm based in the Southwest.

For more information on UNT's superintendent certification program contact John Brooks, program director and lecturer, 940-565-2951. For more information on Southwest Securities, Inc. visit http://www.swsgroupinc.com/.