Get up at 5:30 a.m. Drive to the barn at the Telge Exhibit Center to feed the animals. Drive to school. Go to choir practice after school. Put in about four hours at your after-school job at a vet’s practice. Go back to the barn to feed your animals again. Get home about 9 or 9:30 p.m. Eat dinner. Do homework, Get ready for the next day.
On weekends put in some more work hours and/or show your rabbits and lambs as a Future Farmers of America member. Show your lambs for three years and finally make the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo competition and make it to auction in your senior year in 2026.
Think this sounds impossible? Meet Lily Delgado who in just a few days, will set off for Texas A&M, armed with a $20,000 scholarship from the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. The first-generation college student already has her associate’s degree, earned thanks to dual credit courses at Cypress Woods High School.
It’s difficult not to be impressed when she describes what sounds like impossibly busy days during her junior and senior years of high school. It ramps up a couple of levels when you find out she’s been diagnosed with bipolar II disorder and has a heart condition.
The youngest of five siblings, she plans to major in biology at A&M, with an ultimate goal of becoming a physician’s assistant. And she’ll be able to do that without the kind of financial worries that she’d have to negotiate otherwise.
This July, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announced it was awarding 541 Texas students with $20,000 scholarships for a total of $10.8 million. The scholarships are part of the Rodeo’s record $15 million scholarship commitment.
According to HLSR statistics, 30 percent of the scholarship recipients are first-generation high school graduates and 53 percent are first time college attendees. The top five colleges they are attending are Texas A&M University, University of Texas at Austin, University of Houston, Texas Tech University and Texas State University.
The top majors most of them have chosen are Animal Science, Biology, Psychology, Mechanical Engineering and Nursing.
Contrary to some people’s perceptions, not all kids involved in FFA come from farm or ranching families and Delgado is a case in point. She lives in suburbia and neither of her parents have any background in livestock or agriculture.
“My freshman year I was playing volleyball,” she says, All athletes had an electrocardiogram at school. The athletic trainer told her that she had an abnormal reading and in short order Delgado went to her GP and then a cardiologist and got her diagnosis of Wolff-Parkinson-White which causes a fast heartbeat, dizziness and chest pain.
Her high school counselor said she had to take another class. “I ended up taking principles of agriculture. That’s when I decided I could raise animals and be part of all these programs in FFA.”
She began with lambs her first year and by her junior year she added rabbits. The money she made from selling the lambs kept things going so she could buy her next animal.
Delgado knew from the start that the lambs would be killed at the end of the season.Knowing that their meat would be going to families that needed it helped a lot. “But I still cried after every time,” she says.
“Since my family wasn’t raised in an agriculture setting or experience, I pretty much did this all on my own. My parents didn’t guide me in this. They just supported me. I relied on my FFA teacher Monica McClellan. I had four ag teachers but she’s the one who helped me the most in lambs. And helped me get to be a part of the rodeo.”
HLSR has different categories that students can apply for scholarships under. Since Delgado had shown her lamb there, she applied under the exhibitor’s category.
In her application essay she wrote about working through the struggle she has had with depression and anxiety as well as her grades, her extracurriculars, her hard work.
Delgado got the good news about the HLSR scholarship in late May, the day of her high school graduation. “I got it in an email. “I was on the couch at home. I got the email and I kept reading it over and over. I jumped up from the couch. I was ecstatic.”
As for her career choice, she says “I thought about pre-med like becoming a doctor but it’s not exactly the work-life balance I want. I want time to be with my family.” Being a physician’s assistant means she’ll be able to work with patients one on one, she says.
She wants to specialize in emergency medicine “Because any time there’s someone in a vulnerable state or going through anything traumatic, I want to be there to help.”
When the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo made its announcement about scholarships this month, they included a statement from Chris Boleman, Rodeo president and CEO. “Education has the power to change lives, and we’re proud to help open doors for these remarkable students. These scholarships are possible because of the extraordinary support of our volunteers, donors, sponsors and attendees. Together, we’re investing in future leaders who will shape the future of our state.”
Or as Delgado puts it: “It means everything to me that I’m given such an opportunity to do this. And it’s enabling me to continue this education without worrying about financial needs. I’m able to just focus on my schooling.”
