Western Governors University offering $250,000 in Resiliency Grants to students

December 29, 2020
Mike Tanner

WATERTOWN, S.D.–Western Governors University (WGU) has announced it’s offering $250,000 in resiliency grants to new students looking to make a fresh start from COVID-19.

Each grant is valued at up to $4,000, and will be applied to WGU’s tuition of about $3,500 per six-month term.

The scholarship is open to new students enrolling in any of WGU’s 60-plus undergraduate and graduate degree programs in the high-demand fields of IT, business, education and health professions, including nursing.

The application can be found at https://www.wgu.edu/financial-aid-tuition/scholarships/general/resiliency-grant.html.  

“South Dakotans are resilient, and all of us at WGU hope this grant offering will be a catalyst for those negatively impacted by COVID-19 to take back control of their future by furthering their education,” said Dr. Angie Besendorfer, Regional Vice President of Western Governors University. “The start of a new year brings with it hopes for new opportunities and is a perfect time for those who have been putting off starting or going back to college to jump in and set goals that will lead to career advancement and enhance their overall lives.”

WGU announced an educational partnership with Lake Area Technical College( LATC) in October 2019 that allows LATC graduates who’ve obtained their associates degree, and are interested in obtaining a bachelor’s degree, to seamlessly transfer their credits to WGU.

WGU was founded in 1997 by 19 U.S. governors, including then South Dakota Governor Bill Janklow. The online university now serves more than 131,000 students nationwide and has more than 209,000 graduates.