Pattie and Freddie Wong '69 have established the Pattie and Freddie Wong ’69 Endowed Scholarship to benefit undergraduate students in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Texas A&M University specializing in energy and power.
Freddie Wong began his college career at Tarleton State University (formerly Tarleton State College) in 1965 before transferring to Texas A&M. Initially, this transfer provided challenges for Wong. His college career took an unexpected turn when he found out that he was behind an entire academic year in his engineering courses due to course restrictions at his previous institution.
However, he was determined to catch up and overcome. For the next four years Wong took an average of 20 hours of classes per semester. After graduation, Wong found a job in the petrochemical, oil and gas industry, where he ended up staying for his entire career.
“I was lucky that my career allowed me to make a comfortable living,” Wong said. “Our family was able to flourish. My two sons, Michael and Darryl, both graduated from Texas A&M and now have very good careers. We’re still waiting and hoping to see if we’ll get a third-generation Aggie out of our grandchildren, but we know that their college educations are well-funded.”
Merely accepting success was not enough for Wong. After joining the Houston A&M Club, he spent the last 15 years supporting and volunteering with a long-term mentoring program for disadvantaged minority children in the Houston area, the Caring Aggie Mentoring Program (C.A.M.P.).
The mission of C.A.M.P. is “To mentor children as they develop through school and inspire them to pursue higher education by reinforcing excellent academic standards; building confidence and leadership skills; providing fun, life-enriching experiences; and role modeling qualities of success.”
“Children in C.A.M.P. stay in our program between the third grade and 12th grade,” he said. “Two of the children I’ve personally mentored have already graduated from Texas A&M. I was able to help them with the cost of attending university by endowing scholarships for them, and after seeing the impact that those scholarships had on the students that I knew so well, I realized I wanted to encourage event more future Aggies to pursue degrees in power systems. Thus, this scholarship was born.”
Wong believes in continuing the legacy of Aggie engineers and is proud to provide opportunities for students who might otherwise not have the chance to study at Texas A&M due to financial burdens.
HOW TO GIVE
Endowments supporting Texas A&M College of Engineering students have an immeasurable impact on their education. If you are interested in supporting the College of Engineering and its departments or would like more information on how you can give, please contact True Brown, senior director of development.