INSTITUTE, W.Va. — West Virginia State University (WVSU) and the BHER Foundation have announced the establishment of a new scholarship at the university to support students who have come through the Healthy Grandfamilies program.
The BHER Foundation pledged $150,000 to fund the scholarship, which will be known as the BHER Foundation Healthy Grandfamilies Scholarship. Healthy Grandfamilies is a program of the WVSU Extension Service that provides support to grandparents raising their grandchildren.
“We are extremely grateful to the BHER Foundation for this generous commitment to provide scholarship support for students who have come through our Healthy Grandfamilies program,” said WVSU President Ericke Cage. “These students and their families have already overcome many of life’s challenges, and this scholarship will be a tremendous aid in helping them continue their education at West Virginia State University.”
“Healthy Grandfamilies helps grandparents navigate the challenges associated with raising their grandchildren, oftentimes after families are impacted by the trauma of addiction, and it’s the type of impactful program that the BHER Foundation is designed to support,” said Alicia Knapp, President and CEO of BHE Renewables. “We are proud to partner with WVSU to support these children with scholarships that will help them reach their full academic potential.”
The new scholarship will give preference to WVSU students from Jackson County served by the Healthy Grandfamilies program. Each year information on the scholarship will be given to the counselors at Ravenswood High School and Ripley High School and counselors will be encouraged to recommend students for the scholarship. Second preference will be given to other West Virginia students served by Healthy Grandfamilies. Once all students from Healthy Grandfamilies have been considered, students from West Virginia who are the first in their families to attend college may be considered. The first scholarship is expected to be awarded this fall.
The WVSU Healthy Grandfamilies program was established in 2015 and today operates in all 55 counties of West Virginia providing support and resources to grandparents raising their grandchildren, often as the result of addiction. For more information on the Healthy Grandfamilies program visit, www.healthygrandfamilies.com.
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West Virginia State University is a public, land-grant, historically black university, which has evolved into a fully accessible, racially integrated, and multi-generational institution, located in Institute, W.Va. As a “living laboratory of human relations,” the university is a community of students, staff, and faculty committed to academic growth, service, and preservation of the racial and cultural diversity of the institution. Its mission is to meet the higher education and economic development needs of the state and region through innovative teaching and applied research.
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