A Message from our Executive Director

In our seasonal calendar, Summer is our time for "Planting the Seeds". It is a time when we recruit the next generation of bright minds, onboard the passionate professionals who will guide them, and gather the critical financial resources required to fully underwrite their dreams.

Fall Student Recruitment Launches

This August, Minds Matter Houston officially launched its student recruitment campaign for the upcoming academic year, visiting two remarkable local campuses to connect with high-achieving students who face significant economic barriers to higher education.

Class of 2027 Demystifies Elite College Campus Life

This summer, the Minds Matter Houston Class of 2027 "lifted off" from Space City, launching into transformative, life-changing journeys at some of the nation's most prestigious academic institutions.

Welcoming Tanisha Lee and Vanessa Kohn to Our Board of Directors

At Minds Matter Houston, we believe that community is our highest value and the basis for our success. To continue scaling our impact, bringing academic opportunities to more local families, and expanding our high-touch program, we must build a sustainable foundation of stable, visionary leadership.

This summer, our sophomore scholars are taking monumental steps toward college by attending premier pre-college residential camps across Texas. When scheduling or transportation barriers threatened to keep these students from attending, our community didn’t hesitate.

Mark your calendars for an unforgettable evening of community, celebration, and purpose! Minds Matter Houston is thrilled to announce our second annual benefit, Fueling Futures 2026, taking place on Saturday, October 24, 2026, from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM at the stunning City Cellars HTX.

If you’ve ever looked for rewarding volunteer opportunities in Houston or considered how to mentor high school students, you might have hit pause because of a few common worries. “Am I qualified enough?”

As we approach the end of another academic year, my heart is filled with immense gratitude for the dedicated donors and volunteers who make our mission possible.

This year, we made a strategic shift in our outreach by launching our first Spring Recruitment cycle, moving our information sessions earlier in the year to give students more time to navigate the application process.

Following the success of our March Career Panel, Minds Matter Houston (MMH) continued its spring theme of "harvesting success" with an intensive three-part workshop series.

On March 21, 2026, Minds Matter Houston (MMH) transformed the Houston Food Bank into a vibrant hub of professional discovery for our high-achieving scholars.

The ultimate testing ground for our scholars’ hard work happens during the summer months, when our rising juniors and seniors step outside their comfort zones and onto elite college campuses across the nation through Summer Programs.

This Spring semester has been a season of significant growth and preparation for all three classes at Minds Matter Houston. From mastering standardized tests to navigating the complexities of college applications and professional branding, our students have balanced rigorous AM Academic sessions with transformative PM Mentoring workshops.

Education at Minds Matter Houston has always been about more than just what happens within the four walls of a classroom. This Spring, we put that philosophy into practice with a community-wide outing to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH).

While sending our scholars to elite college campuses across the nation is always a monumental undertaking, this life-changing milestone has just been made entirely possible by our transformative new corporate partner, Sempra Infrastructure.

In the final weeks of January 2026, the Minds Matter Houston community proved that empathy knows no bounds.

We are absolutely thrilled and deeply grateful to welcome Shonta’ Greenwood to the Minds Matter Houston Board of Directors!

On behalf of the entire Minds Matter Houston community, I want to express my deepest gratitude for making our inaugural Fueling Futures Fundraiser and the surrounding campaigns a resounding success.

Annalise joined Minds Matter Houston as a sophomore at Eastwood Academy in 2017. She came from a single-income family in the East End of Houston and hoped to become a first-generation college student.

The national Minds Matter organization, as a vital part of the college access pipeline, gives our Minds Matter Houston students access to some of the best colleges in the country. Thanks to our organization’s relationship with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, MA (and the high caliber of our students) we were able to host a MMH/MIT recruitment event for our students during a Saturday Session in October!