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-For Immediate Release- On August 21, 2023, the University of the Southwest Foundation established the Karisa Ann Raines Memorial Scholarship. The scholarship was funded through an initial gift of $100,000 from Gary and Sandy Raines, parents of Karisa Ann Raines. Investment earnings from the endowment will fund an annual scholarship awarded to a full-time USW student with a GPA of 3.0 or higher and a member of USW athletics. Preference for the award will be given to student-athletes on the golf team. Karisa (known on campus as “Little Red”) was a USW student and member of the 2022 Women’s Golf Team. As a senior in her last two classes at USW, Karisa’s degree was conferred upon her posthumously in March of 2022. Scholarship recipients for the 2023 academic year include Halie Cruz, Phillip Lopez, Harrison Kessler, and Jonathan Flores. Dr. Tipton, President of USW, states, “It is a privilege to work with Gary and Sandy to establish this endowment forever honoring Karisa. She made such an impact on our campus and brightened every classroom with her kindness and positivity. Her memory here at USW will continue to support future students as they pursue their dream of playing golf and continuing their education.” Karisa’s father, Gary Raines, noted, “Sandy and I are so excited about the opportunity to help deserving scholar-athletes in Karisa's name. Her passions were God, her family, education, and golf. She considered each of her teammates as family, so it is appropriate that our first scholarships should go to Halie, Jonathan, Philip, and Harrison. We know that "Little Red" would be honored and thrilled to be an integral part of their continued education. With the assistance of USW, Karisa Ann Raines will forever remain a huge part of the university and their scholarship program.”

Welcome to a new, modern, USW. We are excited to welcome you to the brand new USW website! Our hope is that this new website is a reflection of the modern direction of the university. We expect that you'll be able to find your way around much easier, whether you're a future student, a former student, or anything in between. Keep reading to learn more about the development of the site and some tips and tricks for navigating. Developing the New Website Developing the new site has been a journey in the making. After evaluating the state of the previous site that has been used for over a decade, we decided it was time to start fresh. Earlier this year, we began a contract with a third-party company to develop our site. After a couple months of back and forth and much discussion, our team decided to part ways with the contractor and bring the project back in house. After all, no one knows this university better than our own people! Once that decision was made, it was full steam ahead from there. We assembled a team dedicated to getting the site up and running as soon as possible. While there will continue to be improvements made on the new site as we get feedback from users, we are proud to present our students, faculty, staff, and community with this resource, as we acknowledge the importance of a clear and professional website. Navigating the Website The primary objective of the new site was to make navigation and information acquisition as easy as possible. This starts with our menu bar, where you can navigate based on the type of information you're looking for (ex. Admissions, Academics, etc.) or based on the type of user that you are (ex. Current Students, Faculty & Staff, etc.). We structured our site this way because we realized that users had applicable information in multiple areas. Since the USW website is the primary resource for students, staff, and faculty, we wanted to make sure each user group had a hub for information most relevant to them. We encourage you to check out the hub for you user group! Providing us Feedback! With the launch of the new site, we know that there is still plenty of opportunity for improvement. That's why we've included a banner right on our homepage for you to give us feedback. If you notice anything wrong, broken, or just an opportunity for a new idea, we want to know! Just click the button on the banner and let us know what we can improve. We're very excited for you to explore the site! #GOMUSTANGS