Named after the Texas Ranger and “Father of the Hill Country” who provided the original land and endowment for the school in 1923, Schreiner University is a product of the soil in which it was grown. Captain Charles Schreiner immigrated to Texas as a teenager and lost his parents soon after he arrived. Through hard work and commitment, he built a livestock, retail, and banking empire in Kerr County, the heart of the Texas Hill Country. His story, like those of so many other Texans, is one of courage, strength, hope, and resolve. Though the odds were against him, Captain Schreiner had a vision of a vibrant and diverse Texas Hill Country that included a school educating young men—and later young women—in the military tradition.

Schreiner Institute also grew out of the vision of the Presbytery of Western Texas. In the tradition of the denomination, the Presbytery of Western Texas recognized the people of the Texas Hill Country required a quality education in order for their minds and, therefore, their hearts to be liberated and truly free. As early as 1906, records indicate the Presbytery intended to start a school in Kerrville. In 1923, working alongside Captain Schreiner, it saw that school—Schreiner Institute—become a reality.

Out of the minds and hearts of Captain Schreiner and the Presbytery of West Texas grew the maverick educational institution known today as Schreiner University.

At Schreiner University, students enter with hope and leave with achievement. We are a diverse, fiercely independent university. We are affiliated by choice and covenant with the Presbyterian Church (USA) with a main campus in the Texas Hill Country and first year campuses throughout the state.

Schreiner University is a place of opportunity. We offer undergraduate and graduate students a personalized, integrated, and holistic educational experience that prepares them for meaningful work and purposeful lives in a changing global society. Students study in-depth in a specific area of interest while acquiring broad skills and habits of mind to navigate a complex, diverse, and unscripted future.

• All students are valuable and unique;
• Every student should grow intellectually, physically, spiritually, and socially;
• We value diversity of people and thought in a setting of open, civil discourse;
• Life-long learning and service to society are critical in a global world; and
• Higher education must develop thoughtful, productive, and ethical citizens.

By 2023, Schreiner University will be a university of 2,250 students, educating men and women for service and leadership in the Hill Country, Texas, the nation, and world. We will recruit enthusiastic and diverse men and women and forge in them the intellectual, emotional, and personal resilience that has made Schreiner Institute, College, and University the uniquely Texan educational institution it has been, is, and will be.