Jon Mark Beilue: The payoff is with the degree

Trotter Success Plan is $40,000, but only after graduation

Dr. Lance Kieth was a little taken aback initially.

Kieth was grateful for the $1 million endowment for the Johnny and Jana Trotter Agriculture Graduation Success Plan at West Texas A&M University—and the $40,000 scholarship that went along with it. When—or if—would receive it, well, that part was a little different.

“I’d never heard of a scholarship like that,” said Kieth, head of the Department of Agriculture in the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences and professor of agriculture education. “When I first heard about it, I was bewildered a little bit. From my standpoint, I could recruit 20 good students at $2,000 a year and grow my numbers, but on the other side of it, the more I thought about it, the more I liked it.”

Photo: Hayden Cape and mother Poppy Richardson celebrate following Cape's May 7 graduation from West Texas A&M University. Now that he's earned his degree, Cape will receive a $40,000 payout on a scholarship from the Johnny and Jana Trotter Agriculture Graduation Success Plan.

Hayden Cape of Springlake-Earth graduated May 7 as the first recipient of the Trotter success plan—and a plan it is. He was identified by Kieth as a candidate as an entering freshman, who closely followed Cape’s progress toward a degree in agricultural business and a minor in accounting.

Now, having fulfilled the requirements established upon entering WT, Cape will receive $40,000—money to pay off student debt and/or get a foothold on life after college. It’s earned money.

For Trotter, all of that just makes sense. He was the son of a Methodist minister. There were Bibles in the Trotter home, but no silver spoons. By age 10, he was driving a tractor for his first paycheck. At age 11, he was waking up at 4:30 a.m. to deliver newspapers. By age 16, he was in charge of 600 head of wheat pasture cattle.

Over the decades, Trotter, 71, has been a diversified businessman with interests in banks and car businesses, water hauling, real estate, quarter horses and horse racing. He’s best known as president and general manager of Bar-G Feedyards in Hereford, and shares in ownership of Ruidoso Downs Race Track and Casino.

He’s in three halls of fame: Texas Cowboy, Texas Horse Racing and Cattle Feeder. In the beginning, he inherited nothing but a work ethic and an understanding that you get out exactly what you put in to an endeavor.

“I don’t know of any industry a person gets into that your salary or what you eventually get is not tied to production or performance,” Trotter said. “Everything I’ve done has been like that. I like to give a guy an opportunity to excel in a field, and the way you do that is outperform others.

“That’s been my concept. Jana and I have tried to help different kids along the way with their education, but eventually most of them run out of gas and do something else. So that’s kind of been disheartening to us.”

Trotter attended WT for just one semester in 1969 but has long been an advocate of higher education and its impact on students.

The requirements to fulfill the Trotter Success Plan are not like getting into medical school, but it’s more than taking up space:

• A full-time student in the Department of Agricultural Sciences until graduation
• Maintain a minimum of 3.0 GPA
• Be a member of at least one campus organization, but two is preferred
• Demonstrate financial need
• Preference given to students in the top 42 counties of the Texas Panhandle and South Plains or a student from New Mexico, Oklahoma or Colorado

The success plan award provides the student $5,000 per semester of not more than eight semesters, or $40,000. It is awarded in one lump sum within 45 days after certification of the completion of the degree.

“All of us want students to be successful,” Kieth said. “This is that carrot, especially in that first couple of years. That’s when it’s a struggle. College is still new, you may be borrowing money to go to school, and their family tells them just to come home and work.

“This is a better investment. As I’ve explained how the Trotter Success Plan works to people, they all say that it makes sense. I think you’re going to see more scholarships look like this. I’m an advocate, and it’s going to help us in the agriculture department with our graduation rates.”

‘It taught me to grow up’

Kieth selects a student at the beginning of their freshman year and then gauges their interest in the Trotter Success Plan. Cape was the first student selected in 2018.

Other students who have been selected include Angelica Valencia, a Hereford native whose father drives a truck, Laney Meador of Canyon, and Dylan Martinez of Hereford.

“Dylan was born in Mexico. His family doesn’t speak English, and his father works at Caviness,” Kieth said. “His parents told him that he is going to get a college education, and he wanted to go into the cattle feeding industry.

“The Trotters are drawn to that kind of student. It would be easy to get kids who are friends of the Trotters and they all feed cattle. That kind of kid is a strong completer. The students we have selected are academically challenged a little bit, but if they can see this through, it can dramatically change their lives.”

Photo: Hayden Cape, center, is congratulated by grandparents Gail and Carlton Richardson following May 7 commencement ceremonies at West Texas A&M University.

Cape is the youngest son of a single mom, Poppy Richardson, an accountant in Plainview. He has an older brother, Riley, who has special needs.

Cape and Trotter have crossed paths as both are team ropers, a sport that Cape continued at WT. After graduating Springlake-Earth in 2018, Cape was considering Tarleton State in Stephenville because of their rodeo team. Trotter told him of the success plan that was about to begin, and Cape thought enough of the possibility that he went to WT instead. Here, he became a star of the team and in June will compete at his second consecutive National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association finals.

And the uniqueness of the payoff at the end?

“I had never head of it,” Cape said, “but I thought it was cool. I had some scholarships when I first came in that paid for much of my school, but I like the idea of a bonus when you finish, to have something at the end. I was excited about it. Still am, I guess.

“There was a time in school when I was thinking I’d just go off and rope, but I knew it would be worth it to stay hooked. It was dang sure a challenge, but I’m glad I decided to do it how I did it.”

The lure of the Trotter plan is that the more semesters that go by, the more hours that are passed and the closer a graduation date becomes, the harder it will be to quit. And in doing so, and continuing on when times get tough, students find out intangibles about themselves they might not have known.

“It has taught me to grow up more than anything,” Cape said. “When you’re away from home and you got stuff to do, there’s not anyone going to baby you along and tell you that you need to get it done. That took getting used to, to learn to handle your business and not have someone look out for you.”

That’s music to Johnny Trotter’s ears, the reason why this reverse scholarship, if you will, was set up in this manner.

“The great part of this deal is the student has to go through the performance of all this,” Trotter said. “He has to take care of everything instead of giving it to him. He’s performing, he’s facilitating. He’s going to class. He’s making his grades. So we’re giving him the opportunity to do it himself, and reward him if he can.

“When he walks across that stage and gets that diploma, then it’s not about Johnny and Jana Trotter. It’s about that individual and how he performed and what his goals were that he set. Hopefully, in the process, he’ll learn how to maneuver in the business world and how performance is rewarded and that will set a concept in his mind.”

Top photo: Johnny, left, and Jana Trotter, second from right, established the Trotter Agriculture Graduation Success Plan at West Texas A&M University in 2018, paying up to $40,000 to a student who successfully completes his or her degree in WT's Department of Agriculture. Hayden Cape, second from left, traveled to Hereford to thank the Trotters shortly before his May 7 graduation. Also pictured are Paighton Gouldy, ag department student success coordinator, center, and Dr. Lance Kieth, head of the Department of Agriculture.

Do you know of a student, faculty member, project, an alumnus or any other story idea for “WT: The Heart and Soul of the Texas Panhandle?” If so, email Jon Mark Beilue at jbeilue@wtamu.edu .