President Slabach accepts the award from Bill Schwennsen, director, EFWBA board. Photo by Lloyd Jones.

The East Fort Worth Business Association proudly named Texas Wesleyan University as its Organization of the Year for 2015.

The university was honored for its 125-year commitment East Fort Worth: through the Rosedale Renaissance revitalization project, extensive renovations and improvements to the university campus, and its dedication to enriching the lives of students from the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood.

“It is an honor to receive this award from our East Fort Worth partners and collaborators,” President Frederick G. Slabach, said. “We are committed to transforming southeast Fort Worth into a thriving economic center and to supporting educational opportunities for students from our neighborhood.”

The East Fort Worth Business Association noted that it is especially fitting to recognize Texas Wesleyan this year, after the completion and dedication of the Rosedale Renaissance project in October and the growing number of scholarships the university provides to students from the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood.

“The efforts that Texas Wesleyan has made to improve the community they call home proves to the rest of the city that East Fort Worth has a bright future and that businesses can locate here and thrive,” Wanda Conlin, president of the East Fort Worth Business Association, said.

Texas Wesleyan Board of Trustees Chairman Beverly Volkman Powell, and board members Gary Cumbie and Jerry Wood, represented the university at the banquet on Nov. 5. President Frederick G. Slabach accepted the award on behalf of the university.

Commitment beyond ‘bricks and mortar’ 

“Wesleyan’s commitment to East Fort Worth goes much farther than just ‘bricks and mortar,’” Conlin said. “Texas Wesleyan actively participates with the Fort Worth ISD in providing numerous enrichment programs to students in the Polytechnic Heights neighborhood.” 

“Just this year, they awarded 10 full scholarships to students that grew up in Poly with the Speak Up Scholarship,” Conlin said.

The Speak Up Scholarship is for students who graduate from both William James Middle School and Polytechnic High School with a 3.0 GPA.

More than one third of Texas Wesleyan students are first-generation college students.

Rosedale Renaissance

On Oct. 22, more than a thousand people gathered at Texas Wesleyan to celebrate the Rosedale Renaissance and the transformation it brings to the campus and southeast Fort Worth. Local dignitaries, including City of Fort Worth Mayor Betsy Price and Tarrant County Commissioner Roy Charles Brooks were a part of the 1,000 plus crowd that gathered for the dedication.

The Rosedale Renaissance revitalization project is a public-private partnership that includes $6.7 million in funds raised by Texas Wesleyan and more than $32 million from the City of Fort Worth, Tarrant County and the North Central Texas Council of Governments.

The project includes the 83-ft. tall clock tower and campus entryway, the headquarters of the Central Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church, a renovated historic Polytechnic Firehouse housing art classrooms, and major street improvements along East Rosedale Ave.

All a part of the 2020 Vision

Texas Wesleyan’s 2020 Vision is the university’s strategic plan and vision for the future of the university. Serving as a roadmap to educational excellence, the plan underscores the importance of the university’s mission, vision and core values. For more information, visit txwes.edu/2020vision.