tah Valley University (UVU) Women’s Success Center believes in the power and impact
that educated women bring to the world. The Women’s Success Center (WSC) offers programs
and scholarships to help women succeed at UVU and after graduation. WSC programs help
women build strong networks and find support on campus no matter what their goals
are currently or in the future. Through connecting women with each other and with
campus resources, the WSC creates a powerful and inclusive community working together
for good.
At-a-glance
WSC student success programs work:
Women of UVU
participants
persistence rate
WSC scholarship recipients
persistence rate
graduation rate
Women’s Leadership
Academy participants
persistence rate
Awarded 176 student's scholarships in 2021-22, with a median award of $2,300.
Students participating in scholarship success coaching stay enrolled at rates 17% higher than their peers.
Parent-students with children at Wee Care have a 56% graduation rate (outcomes measure), 10% higher than their peers. This is a significant accomplishment for non-traditional students with children and additional responsibilities outside of school.
The Women’s Success Center guides students through higher education by providing an inclusive environment with personalized support for students on the path to graduation. The WSC was created in 2011 to address low enrollment and graduation rates among women at UVU. Every year, the center sees significant improvement as they work toward their mandate to recruit, retain, and graduate female students. WSC programs are thoughtfully designed to help students stay on course and graduate. These programs are created specifically for women, but services are available to all students on campus and to community members transitioning back to school. The WSC firmly believes that diversity is integral to building strong communities and attaining excellence, and they support the University’s diversity and inclusion mission.
The Center also provides support, leadership, coaching, and advocacy for students. Throughout the year, the WSC hosts events to honor and support individuals in the university and community. These events include the celebration of Women’s History Month, the UVU Women’s Success Center Annual Scholarship luncheon, and the UVU Women Awards. These events would not be possible without support from donors who continually support WSC’s mission. The generous gifts from donors and support are directed toward helping WSC programs grow and increase their support for women at UVU.
The WSC provides:
1 Offer programs that help parent-students
2 Support women in school
3 Inspire women to become future leaders
The WSC is dedicated to helping parent-students succeed and to providing high-quality, oncampus childcare to their children. The Wee Care Center, UVU’s on-campus childcare facility, is nationally accredited and meets or exceeds all state licensing requirements. Child educators use a top-ranked curriculum to help children at the Wee Care Center to learn and grow while their parent pursues education at UVU. Each day, every child who enters the Wee Care Center will learn, explore, and thrive.
Of all the programs offered by WSC, the Care Center requires the most funding to perpetuate,
and the center aims to receive additional funding to further support parent-students.
The Wee Care Center hopes to provide drop-in childcare, offer childcare scholarships
to parent-students, and hire a program coordinator to facilitate success coaching
for parent-students.
By creating these additional resources, students who are seeking childcare while attending
classes at UVU will have more access to affordable childcare options.
Women make up 49% of UVU’s student population, and although they have a higher average GPA than their male peers by .18 points, they complete degrees at a significantly lower rate. The WSC supports programs that seek to help women reach their full potential at UVU. One of those is Women of UVU, a studentrun organization dedicated to helping women achieve success and persist toward graduation. Women of UVU provides a supportive, social community and connect students to the resources they need through weekly dropin activities and monthly socials. Women of UVU also awards $35,000 in scholarships every year to outstanding students. With additional funding, the Women of UVU can offer even more financial support to students with financial need at UVU.
The Women’s Leadership Academy is a two-semester program beginning each fall that provides participants with knowledge and experience to build and refine their leadership skills through classroom experiences, hands-on leadership, mentorship, and coaching. Students can take part in the cohort experience or as a peer mentor.
After being too shy to participate in student government as a high school student,
Nicole Trette ’22 received a second opportunity to pursue her passion for being a
leader through the UVU Women’s Success Center.
Nicole’s desire to gain leadership experience and connect with a community of like-minded individuals motivated her to join the WSC her sophomore year. During her three years of involvement, the Center was welcoming and supportive, and it became home to growth opportunities, according to Nicole.
“I think the Women’s Success Center is super awesome in the fact that it has different resources where students can get together and cheer each other on to achieve personal and academic goals,” Nicole shared.
Nicole was especially grateful for her involvement with the WSC’s Leadership Academy, which taught her essential leadership skills, including how to solve problems, ask beneficial questions, organize and plan schedules, and communicate with a team.
“Those are skills that I use now, after college,” she said.
She also learned what was required to be a good leader. The wealth of leadership experience and knowledge she gained through the Leadership Academy drastically improved her personal, academic, and professional confidence.
“If people were to see the type of person that I was as a freshman compared to who I am now, it’s a night and day difference [in terms] of confidence level,” Nicole said.
With this newfound confidence, Nicole served as president for Women of UVU, a student-run WSC organization with a goal of helping women achieve success and persist toward graduation by providing a supportive, social community and connecting students to needed resources. She served in the position for two years and loved it.
“From that experience, I learned a lot about how to be a leader and how to apply those leadership skills,” Nicole said. “It was a really awesome experience.”
The Women’s Success Center provides networking opportunities and professional development activities, including practice interviews, conflict resolution, and resume review. Nicole took advantage of these resources to find a job and smoothly transition from UVU to the workforce.
Nicole also benefited from the WSC’s Success Coaching, one-on-one meetings tailored to individual students. Nicole’s success coaches became her mentors and pillars of support. She credits them for helping her discover personal strengths and improve on weaknesses.
“I had that one person who I could go to, who I trusted, and I knew that they wanted the best for me personally and in my academic career,” Nicole said. “Professionally, I learned so much through my success coaching.”
The WSC served as a springboard for Nicole to earn a degree from UVU and become a medical assistant in Arizona, where she relocated after graduating. She plans to apply to physician assistant school after a year in her current role.
Nicole is thankful to the UVU Women’s Success Center for the difference it made in her life.
“There were so many lessons that I learned from my experience with the Women’s Success Center that helped me become the person that I am,” she said.
By making a gift, you will enrich the lives of students and faculty who, in turn, will lift others. The students, graduates, and staff are working hard at the Women’s Success Center to help women succeed. Help them thrive. Together, we can transform students’ lives.
