By Kevin Craig, WVU Board of Governors, WVU Health System Board of Directors
It’s a season of possibility, as high school students across West Virginia prepare to don their caps and gowns and celebrate a major life milestone.
What’s next for them is a question only they can answer, but my sincere hope is that these students — representing our collective future — will pursue higher education to better themselves and the Mountain State.
At the institutional level, the annual economic impact of West Virginia University alone tops $2 billion.
At the individual level, research shows a bachelor’s degree increases earning potential by an average of $1 million over a lifetime, proving that affordable, accessible higher education is critical to quality of life.
That is why I am proud to serve as a member of the WVU Board of Governors and, in that role, work to actively support the land-grant mission of West Virginia’s R1 flagship University.
We are the training ground for the next generation of the state’s leaders, field experts, researchers, health care providers, educators, artists, business leaders, public servants and entrepreneurs.
Our students receive a quality education from dedicated faculty members while performing world-class research, engaging in meaningful service activities and finding their purpose.
Price should never be a reason why a student misses out on such life-changing opportunities which is why I am so supportive of the WVU Guarantee, an option for students enrolling now for the fall.
Find more information at this website: https://financialaid.wvu.edu/grants/guarantee.
Open to students across the WVU System, including WVU Institute of Technology in Beckley and WVU Potomac State College in Keyser, this last-dollar-in financial aid program works in combination with other scholarships and assistance to further remove barriers and ease students’ and families’ financial burdens for income levels at and below $65,000.
This is a commitment from the University to qualifying Mountain State students that they will have the resources they need to cover the costs of tuition and University fees as they pursue their purpose at WVU.
This WVU Guarantee program and the many others like it open doors to the worlds of robotics, management information systems, forensics, neuroscience, game design and interactive media, cybersecurity, nursing, engineering and much, much more.
Like their counterparts at the high school level, our University graduates from those programs and many others are celebrating this Commencement season.
And it’s important to note that, as graduates link arms at the end of each ceremony to sing “Take Me Home, Country Roads” and mark the conclusions of their college careers, nearly half of them will be doing so without any student debt.
What’s next for our new graduates remains to be seen, but their affordable, quality WVU educations give them a significant advantage, supplying enduring lessons and equipping them with the confidence to move forward in pursuit of their passions while changing West Virginia and the world.
I invite you to learn more about West Virginia University and the WVU Guarantee at wvu.edu.
Let’s Go!
A former member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, Kevin Craig is executive vice president for GP Natural Resources Partners in Huntington and serves on the West Virginia University Board of Governors and the West Virginia University Health System Board of Directors.
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