Area residents earn Masters degrees from Western Governors Univ.

Three area residents recently earned Master's degrees from Western Governors University in Salt Lake City.

Evelyn Laws of Plains, earned a Master of Science, Curriculum and Instruction degree.

Laws is a third-year English teacher at Plains Schools.

Jeffrey Stanek of St. Regis, received a Master of Science, Curriculum and Instruction.

Stanek is a social studies teacher at St. Regis Schools.

Kassandra Perkins Cheesman of St. Regis, received a Master of Science, Special Education.

Perkins Cheesman is a special education teacher at St. Regis Schools.

The online, nonprofit university has graduated over 218,000 students from across the country since its inception in 1997.

WGU has recognized 14,146 undergraduate and 15,640 graduate degree recipients, who have completed their degrees since July 2, 2020.

Their areas of study include business, K-12 education, information technology, and health professions, including nursing.

The average time to graduation for those earning a bachelor’s degree was 2 years, 3 months, while the average time to degree for graduate programs was 1 year, 4 months. The average age for those who graduated is 37 years old.

WGU pioneered competency-based education, which measures learning rather than time spent in class. Designed to meet the needs of working adults, students study and learn on their own schedules with individualized, one-to-one faculty support.

They complete courses as soon as they demonstrate that they have mastered the subject matter; allowing them to move quickly through material they already know so they can allocate time for what they still need to learn.

As a result, many WGU students are able to accelerate their studies, saving both time and money.