WKU News

The Department of English in the Potter College of Arts and Letters (PCAL) and the School of Teacher Education in the College of Education and Behavioral Sciences (CEBS) have partnered to offer the Dollar General Literacy Foundation TESOL Scholarship.

The scholarship allows students the opportunity to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) courses. Recipients of the scholarship will receive $500 to conduct 30 hours of ESL community instruction. The scholarship is offered by Assistant Professor of Teacher Education and Director of the Center for Literacy, Dr. Jeremy Logsdon, through funding from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation.

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation was founded in 1993. The foundation aims to provide opportunities to receive a basic education by assisting students as they learn English or prepare for a high school equivalency test.

“The Center for Literacy has long partnered with the Dollar General Literacy Foundation to help with adult literacy, but this is our first large push to help connect these literacy services with non-native English speakers in our community,” says Dr. Logsdon. “This scholarship will have the benefit of both teaching English to non-native speakers in our community and helping WKU students build the necessary skills to become successful at teaching English to speakers of other languages. We are hopeful that this is the first semester of a long-running project to help students who wish to become ESL teachers and practitioners.” 

Dr. Trini Stickle, TESOL Program Coordinator, praises the value of this interdisciplinary coordination.

“This scholarship is a terrific show of support for both our minors and the many diverse language speakers arriving in Bowling Green and its surrounding areas,” says Dr. Stickle. “As we welcome our newest neighbors, this scholarship allows our students the opportunity to share their skills of teaching English from their WKU TESOL classrooms immediately with our community.”

The deadline to sign up for this scholarship is Monday, September 12^th, at 5 PM. Students interested in this scholarship must be a declared TESOL minor at WKU.

If you have any questions about the scholarship, please contact Dr. Logsdon at jeremy.logsdon@wku.edu.