Southwest Connections Episode 12: Paige Ahrendt and Jackson Vierstraete

2020-21 President's Regional Scholars Award Recipients Paige Ahrendt and Jackson Vierstraete join us to talk about their first year at SMSU after becoming the first recipients of the President's Regional Scholars Full Ride Scholarship! The scholarships are the top tier of awards of the President’s Regional Scholars Award program, launched in November, 2019.

There are six scholarship levels to the Regional Scholars program, and range from $4,000 to a full ride over four years. Paige Ahrendt from Pipestone, Sophie Johnson from Hendricks and Jackson Vierstraete from Marshall were the first full-ride recipients of the program. The students were selected through a combination of their outstanding academic achievements and interviews with SMSU faculty, staff and President Kumara Jayasuriya.

For further information about the scholarship program, contact the Office of Admission at: 507-537-6286; Admission@smsu.edu.

About SMSU: https://www.smsu.edu/about/index.html

Visit: https://www.smsu.edu/admission/visit.html

Apply: https://www.smsu.edu/admission/apply-online.html

Timestamps:

0:00 – Intro & Welcome

1:15 – Background & Road to SMSU

3:40 – Involvement on Campus

5:00 – Impact of the Scholarship

6:55 – Academic Pressure as a Scholarship Recipient

7:55 – First-Year Experience

9:50 – What Are You Looking Forward to in Year 2?