Bonafide Texan - The Texas Center

Know Texas. Take Your Place in Its Future.

Bona Fide Texan is a statewide learning experience for adults who want to understand Texas more deeply and become personally invested in where it goes next.

Through expert perspectives, archival materials, on-location storytelling, and Texas traditions, participants discover the story they inherited and the role they can play in carrying it forward.

What Is the Bona Fide Texan Program?

Bona Fide Texan is a statewide adult-learning and civic-certification program designed for anyone who wants to understand Texas more fully and claim a personal stake in its future. Through engaging lessons exploring the state’s history, culture, people, institutions, and founding principles, participants discover how many different peoples and traditions came together to create one Texas.

Those who successfully complete the program earn the Bona Fide Texan credential, formally recognized in a public certification ceremony. More than a history course, Bona Fide Texan is a statewide civic movement building knowledge, strengthening Texas identity, and creating a generation of informed citizens personally invested in carrying the Texas story toward the Bicentennial of 2036 with pride, purpose, and momentum.

Bona Fide Texan is a statewide adult-learning and civic-certification program designed for anyone who wants to understand Texas more fully and claim a personal stake in its future.

Those who successfully complete the program earn the Bona Fide Texan credential, formally recognized in a public certification ceremony.

Program Overview

Discover the Texas story: Meet the people, ideas, cultures, and institutions that built the Texas we know today.
Connect yesterday to tomorrow: See how the lessons of Texas history can help us understand the choices and opportunities before us.
Earn the Bona Fide Texan credential: Complete the program and be recognized as a Bona Fide Texan.
Join the next chapter: Graduates are recognized in a public certification ceremony celebrating their place in the continuing Texas story
Lifelong Texans who want to understand their state

Who Is This Program For?

Bona Fide Texan is for anyone who wants to know Texas beyond the familiar names, dates, and symbols. The program welcomes:

Lifelong Texans who want to understand their state in a new way
New Texans seeking a stronger sense of connection and belonging
Community and civic leaders
Educators and working professionals
Employers and organizations interested in developing informed, engaged leaders
Anyone who wants to play a meaningful role in Texas’s future

More Than a Credential

Becoming a Bona Fide Texan is not about proving where you were born or how long you have lived here. It means understanding the state you call home, recognizing the many people who built it, and choosing to take an informed and active role in what comes next.

Together, participants become part of a statewide civic movement building knowledge, strengthening connection, and preparing to carry the Texas story toward its Bicentennial with pride, purpose, and momentum.

Become a Bona Fide Texan

Know the story. Understand the present. Help shape what comes next.