Penn State Live - World Campus Student Fund adds financial help in hard economic times

World Campus Student Fund adds financial help in hard economic times

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Penn State Outreach friends and staff raise $10,000 to help financially deserving adult students

University Park, Pa — When economic clouds darken, the cost of education becomes harder to justify for adult students, even though continuing their education is crucial to accessing new economic opportunities. To help meet those financial challenges, the Penn State World Campus staff created the World Campus Student Fund, a fund that provides aid for students in financial need.

Jane Ireland, lead counselor at the World Campus and an organizer of the World Campus Student Fund, said the fund provided $10,000 to financially disadvantaged students to help with spring and summer semester tuition.

Recipients of aid from the World Campus Student Fund include:

• A single mother of five children who is in enrolled in the bachelor of Organizational Leadership degree program. She works full-time and attends school full-time.
• A student, who put her dreams of a college degree and law school on hold 17 years ago when her son was born, is finishing her degree to set a good example for her son.
• A student in the Turfgrass program who cares for his disabled father while pursuing a degree.
• A former military police officer in the Marine Corps who hopes to attend law school and to practice military law with the Judge Advocate General Program (JAG).
• A police officer for the Los Angeles Police Department working on a Mental Evaluation Unit of a SWAT team.
• A stay-at-home mom with three small daughters in the Organizational Leadership degree program. Her husband also is a student and active duty Coast Guardsman.

Ireland said she is grateful for the support she has received from World Campus staff and other members of Penn State Outreach, who offer donations and take part in fund raising activities, such as used book sales and bake sales.

“Everyone has been so supportive financially,” said Ireland. “And these troubled economic times just make those contributions that much more important.”
Mark Wheeler, one of the award recipients, said the funding will help him further his educational goals.

“Without a doubt, this scholarship will play a key role in achieving my educational dreams,” Wheeler said. “Thank you for your investment in Penn State and the futures of students like me.”

For more information about the World Campus, visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu.

Penn State World Campus specializes in adult online education, delivering 62 of Penn State’s most highly regarded graduate, undergraduate and professional education programs through convenient online formats. Founded in 1998, Penn State World Campus is the University’s 25th campus serving more than 7,000 students in all 50 states, in 42 countries and across six continents. For more information, visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/ online. Penn State World Campus is a part of Penn State Outreach, the largest unified outreach organization in American higher education. Penn State Outreach serves more than 5 million people each year, delivering more than 2,000 programs to people in all 67 Pennsylvania counties, all 50 states and 80 countries worldwide.