Texas Womans Spring 2024 Magazine

DONOR IMPACT
Establishing a New
Frontier in Education
Opening Doors
to Success for
Foster Care Students
“Take every opportunity
you have to build the
life you want. In foster
care, so many decisions
are not our own. But
your education is yours.”
Tomi Choyce, Business Administration ’25
I
n 2011, nationally
recognized and boardcertified
occupational
medicine physician
Dr. Melissa Tonn was
appointed by then-governor Rick Perry
to the Texas Woman’s University Board
of Regents.
Through her leadership and service
as a TWU Regent, Dr. Tonn learned
about the Frontiers Program, which
is designed to help students who have
experienced foster care earn a college
education. It would become a cause
she would embrace as her own.
“Right place, right time,” Dr. Tonn
says. “Right thing to do.”
National studies show 62% of high
school graduates enroll in college, and
63% of those complete their education.
But among students who experienced
foster care, only 33% will enroll
and fewer than 10% will earn a
college degree.
Students who have experienced
foster care face some unique
challenges. They can’t rely on parents
for help with applications, paying
tuition, or support to deal with the
demands of college, and frequent
school changes due to movement
through the system negatively
impacts their ability to adequately
prepare for college.
In 2015, Dr. Tonn made her first gift
to the Frontiers Program, and she
has become one of its most generous
supporters. Her gifts have provided
the program with much needed
funds for mentoring and counseling,
as well as for helping with housing,
food, financial aid, employment
opportunities, career development,
money management and social
activities.
But getting involved in the Frontiers
Program was not enough. She also
set up the Tonn Emergency Fund,
which provides financial assistance to
students who have aged out of foster
care and face catastrophic events that
may disrupt their education.
Some of these students are “only
one minor crisis away from dropping
out,” says Dr. Tonn. “They lose their
roommate or get sick or their car
breaks down, and the first thing
they’re going to have to do is drop out
of school. That’s how the emergency
fund was originally set up, for students
who had some life event that they
needed some bridge funding.” To date,
Dr. Tonn’s support for the Frontiers
Program and the Tonn Emergency
Fund has exceeded $500,000.
Even that was not enough.
“I found out that a number of the
students didn't go anywhere for
Christmas,” says Dr. Tonn. “They were
staying on campus, so I invited the
students to come over for Christmas
Eve. We had dinner one or two years at
my house, one year at a restaurant in
Snider Plaza, and we drove around and
For more
information
visit twu.edu/frontiers
looked at the Christmas lights.”
Right thing to do, indeed.
Dr. Tonn is president and chief
medical officer of OccMD, LLC, a
member of the American and Texas
Medical Associations and the Dallas
County Medical Society, and past
president of the American Academy of
Disability Evaluating Physicians. She is
a past president of the Texas College
of Occupational and Environmental
Medicine, a fellow of the American
College of Occupational and
Environmental Medicine and a member
of the Parkland Foundation Board.
6 TEXAS WOMAN’S