The West Georgia Technical College Foundation awarded 63 students with over $31,000 in scholarships for Summer Semester 2020.
“On behalf of our Foundation Board of Trustees, we want to congratulate all of the scholarship recipients on their academic success,” Foundation Board of Trustees President Bryant Hightower said. “We’re so proud to know that our partners’ investments, as well as our own, are being spent wisely on such a dedicated and skilled workforce. We are grateful to all of our partners and donors who make these investments possible.”
Angel Reynolds, a recipient of a WGTC Foundation Scholarship, thanked the Foundation in a written note.
“My journey through life has not been the easiest. Being a 22-year-old single mom of two kids has been both a blessing and a struggle. Throughout the years, I have been continuously told that I would not be able to accomplish my goals just because I am a young mom,” Reynolds wrote.
“That fueled me to work even harder, and now I am in my sophomore year of my Business Healthcare Technology and Healthcare Management Programs, with plans to apply to the Registered Nursing program after I complete these programs. Your Foundation will always be remembered and cherished by me because I know that there are people out there who want me to succeed and chase after my goals. I am beyond grateful to be able to attend the summer semester at WGTC thanks to this scholarship.”
The WGTC Foundation has also experienced more success in the last year with its Gap Funding program. The Gap Funding program was started in 2018 as a retention initiative to guarantee students’ outstanding tuition balances. The program “fills the gap” in a student’s ability to fully fund his or her education at WGTC. Students are expected to repay the amount awarded to them, establishing a culture of responsibility and creating sustainability for future students in need of funding. Since its inception, over 700 students have been beneficiaries of the program.
“The beauty of the Gap Funding program is that students are expected to repay the amount we guarantee, thereby replenishing the fund for future students,” Executive Director of Institutional Advancement Kelsey Jones said. “Students are repaying the program at a rate of 94-99 percent each semester, so we’ve spent only a fraction of what we’ve guaranteed. We’re very impressed by our students’ sense of responsibility to this program and their understanding of the importance to ‘pay it forward’ when they can.”
Scholarships are offered each semester to students in a variety of programs and locations at WGTC. For more information about scholarship opportunities available, please visit www.westgatech.edu/foundation-scholarship.
To learn more about establishing or contributing to a scholarship fund or how you can get involved with gap funding, please contact Kelsey Jones at kelsey.jones@westgatech.edu.
West Georgia Technical College, with campuses in Carroll, Coweta, Douglas, Haralson and Troup counties and class sites in Heard and Meriwether counties, offers more than 120 associate degree, diploma, and technical certificate programs of study. A unit of the Technical College System of Georgia, West Georgia Tech is one of the largest of the state’s 22 technical colleges. For more information, please visit westgatech.edu.