Andre Alfred has never been afraid of bold moves. Since his high school days, IT had been an important part of his life. He wasn't afraid to start his career by jumping into traveling jobs with long hours, eager to learn every step of the way. His bold moves helped him move up on the ladder, meet his wife, and improve his technical skills every day. A simple LinkedIn request turned into a full-blown move across the country for his family so he could start a more prestigious job.
And the bold moves didn't stop there.
While at his new job, Andre found himself being called on to make business decisions that his technical experience just couldn't help him with. It was time for another bold move—this time to go to college and get a degree. A degree had always been important to Andre, but work and daily life had put a degree lower on his priority list. Now, it was time to make his move.
Andre enrolled in the Bachelor's of IT Management program at WGU, which allowed him to get the business skills and knowledge he needed for his job. He was able to learn more about finance, statistics, and business processes that were vital to his job—things he hadn't learned as a self-taught programmer.
8 months is all it took Andrea to earn his diploma.
"The day I graduated from WGU, I applied at the MIT Executive MBA Program," Andre said, smiling. He had gotten a taste of higher education, and wasn't ready to stop. He found that his WGU bachelor's degree was a perfect starting place for his educational journey. Andre then worked hard to graduate with his MBA from MIT.
To support access to higher education, we have created:
- The "I Have a Dream" Scholarship - We challenge everyone to realize their dreams. The I Have a Dream Scholarship is for those who have always dreamed of completing their college degrees and advancing their careers but faced challenges that prevented them from moving forward.
- The Resiliency Grant - The Resiliency Grant helps people navigate these tough times by providing financial assistance to new students to cover tuition, fees, and other educational materials.
- The Opportunity Grant - The $10,000 Opportunity Grant is an investment to allow underserved populations the funding necessary to earn a college degree.
- The Online Access Scholarship - 21 million Americans don't have access to internet. As the first of our "We Won't Rest" initiatives, we decided to tackle this problem head-on by introducing the Online Access Scholarship, which provides internet access, laptops, and webcams.
