For a quarter century, Western Governors University (WGU) has been proudly breaking traditions and pioneering new models in online, higher education. On August 6, 2022, WGU celebrates students’ accomplishments, as well as its 25^th Anniversary in its Salt Lake City commencement ceremonies. It’s an impressive milestone for our Night Owl community and the culmination of decades of innovative, passionate efforts to transform higher education opportunities for adult learners in this country.

As members of Utah’s Distinguished Alumni Council, we know firsthand the power that education has to change lives. It opens doors to new opportunities, provides crucial career-building skills, and empowers individuals to be better providers for themselves and their families. Twenty-five years ago, 19 governors—including Utah’s Governor Mike Leavitt—saw the need students had for a new kind of university experience and came together to create a pathway to educational opportunity through technology and a unique learning model.

As non-traditional students, the dream of pursuing a college education or graduate degree seemed impossible with the demands of a career and family, as well as the cost of a traditional university. WGU has allowed us to achieve these dreams by providing an affordable education, as well as removing the boundaries of time and place. Thanks to the power of the internet and an innovative competency-based learning model, this opportunity is available to working adults all over the country.

WGU has broken traditions by providing programs that are competency based and focused on workforce needs. This means that students are able to move through classes at their own pace, and are learning skills that are directly transferable to in-demand jobs. Students are also supported by being assigned a WGU program mentor, who stays in touch with them throughout their academic journey. WGU offers flat-rate tuition that is about half that of most other online colleges, so regardless of the number of courses students complete in a semester, they will be paying the same rate. This provides an incentive to accelerate learning and make higher education even more affordable.

Here is what “breaking traditions” has looked like for us, Tara Larkin and Manu Sood, two proud WGU graduates and Utah Distinguished Alumni Council Members:

Manu Sood, AvidXchange Senior Vice President of Platform Delivery & Operations: “My MBA in IT Management from WGU equipped me to better understand my leadership style – both my strengths and watch-outs, strategic decisioning, macro and microeconomics and how it affects businesses, risk management, corporate social responsibility (ethics), and innovation. These skills are a must-have for leaders to continue to pioneer disruption through technology. My degree at WGU has allowed me to be fearless, confident of my abilities in taking career and life risks and to be a life-long learner. I am a Night Owl forever. I also constantly look for ways to engage with the community within and outside of my organization to pay it forward. We need to cultivate good leaders and we must tap into the genius of diversity.”

Tara Larkin, Intermountain Healthcare Strategic Planning Partner: “WGU is one of the reasons I have had such a successful career. I could not have pursued the next phase of my career had I not been able to do it through WGU. About 17 years into my career I realized it was time for a change, but with small children at home and a working husband I could not have done it without the flexibility that online school offered. I love making change happen in healthcare, I love to make a difference in peoples’ lives. Everything I learned through WGU has allowed me to increase my leadership skills, move forward, and make a difference.”

On behalf of Utah’s entire Distinguished Alumni Council, we offer our congratulations to all WGU graduates celebrating their impressive accomplishments at this year's Salt Lake City commencement at Vivint Arena.  We are excited to welcome the newest Night Owls to the network of more than 285,000 WGU Alumni throughout the country. We are determined to continue to support WGU’s mission of creating new pathways to opportunity by sharing our stories of how WGU has helped us and our families. Here’s to the next 25 years of breaking traditions and barriers in higher education.