The 2024 Employees’ Spouse and Dependent Scholarship awarded scholarships to six students for the 2024-25 academic year. Thanks to the generosity of Virginia Tech employees and donors, each student received $2,000, helping make their Virginia Tech education a little more affordable.

An annual scholarship reception is held each fall semester to recognize the awarded students, their families, and the donors. This year’s reception was held in August to provide an opportunity for the students and their families to meet each other and the scholarship committee and express their gratitude for the scholarship and donors. 

Scholarship recipient Sonja Tuel, majoring in communications, originally planned to attend a college beyond Blacksburg but fell in love with Virginia Tech after several campus visits with her dad, an employee at the university. She is grateful for the scholarship initiative as it has made her college transition more reasonable.  

Since 2000, when the scholarship was established, more than 250 incoming students have received assistance. Each year the amount and number of recipients differ, based on the available funds. This year, 17 students submitted their applications for the scholarship.

Thanks to the donations, the committee was able to increase the scholarship amount this year, said Pascha Gerni, managing director, business and administration, for the Office of the President and chair of the Employees' Spouse and Dependent Scholarship committee. “The scholarship program is celebrating its 25th year, and our goal is to raise more funding to increase the award value and impact,” she said.

Scholarship donations are funded mainly from Virginia Tech employees, but anyone is welcome to donate. Visit the Employees’ Spouse and Dependent Scholarship webpage to learn more about the program, including how to apply for assistance or to give to the fund through payroll deduction.

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