Western Governors University Enlists Students to Create TV Commercial

Online university to award more than $12,000 in scholarships and prizes for winning entries

SALT LAKE CITY, June 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Western Governors University, www.wgu.edu, the nation's only competency-based university, is asking the experts -- its students -- to help create its next television commercial. Beginning today, WGU students and prospective students can enter the "Make a Great WGU Commercial Video Contest" by going to www.wgu.edu/videocontest and entering an original 60-second "commercial" that illustrates why WGU is "A Smarter Way to Learn." All accepted entries will be posted on the WGU website, winners will be selected by WGU staff and popular vote, and more than $12,000 in scholarships and prizes are at stake.

"Our students are the experts -- they know why WGU is a smarter way to learn," said WGU's Vice President of Marketing and Enrollment Patrick Partridge. "We're confident that they'll bring us some fun and fresh new ideas."

The Grand Prize is a scholarship valued up to $7,500 (payable at $1,500 every six-month term enrolled, for up to five terms) and a $500 cash prize. Second and third place prizes are $3,000 and $2,000 scholarships, with two runner-up prizes of $100 Amazon.com gift certificates. The winning scholarships can be used for tuition at Western Governors University or WGU Indiana and may be used in any of WGU's four colleges: Business, Information Technology, Education, and Health Professions.

The deadline for all contest submissions is July 15. Entries can be submitted through the official contest page, www.wgu.edu/videocontest, and online voting by the general public begins July 16. The top 10 finalists will then be posted to the WGU contest website on July 27, when a second round of voting will continue through August 10. Winners will be decided based on the amount of votes they receive online and by a panel of WGU judges. Contest winners will be announced August 13, 2010. For more information and the official rules, please visit www.wgu.edu/videocontest.

About Western Governors University (WGU)

"[WGU is] the best relatively cheap university you've never heard of."– TIME magazine

Recently featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, WGU is the only university in the U.S. offering competency-based degree programs and the only non-profit, fully online university in the country. WGU offers degree programs in Business, Education, Information Technology, and Healthcare Professions, including Nursing. Since its inception in 1997, WGU has grown into a national institution, serving more than 19,000 students in all 50 states.

As a non-profit with a mission to make higher education accessible, WGU strives to keep tuition affordable -- tuition for most undergraduate and graduate programs is less than $6,000 per year and has increased less than $200 in the past four years. WGU is self-sustaining on tuition, and does not rely on state or national support to fund its operations.  

WGU is regionally accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities and nationally accredited by the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). WGU's Teachers College is the first and only exclusively online provider of teacher education to receive accreditation from the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE). WGU nursing programs have been accredited by the Commission for Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).

The university has earned the support of more than 20 leading corporations and foundations. They include institutions such as AT&T, Dell, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Lumina Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, HCA, Microsoft, Oracle, Qwest, SunGard Higher Education, Sun Microsystems, American Express, and Zions Bank. More information is available at www.wgu.edu.

SOURCE Western Governors University

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