A $2.6 million anonymous donation has helped increase the scholarship amount for incoming freshmen in the Career Scholar’s Cooperative Education Program at Wayne State College.  

The increased scholarship amount will provide students in the program $5,000 freshman year, $6,000 sophomore year, $7,000 junior year and $15,000 senior year. Michael Keibler, the executive director of cooperative education, said the money will go towards the students’ tuition.  

“Think about the impact this scholarship is going to have on the students,” Keibler said. “You’re awarding each student $33,000.” 

Keibler said he is beyond thankful for the anonymous donor’s generosity.  

“Beyond the thanks and being very gracious, I would say I am very excited to share with them the impact that their scholarship is making because it has that human impact,” Keibler said. “It has this ripple effect.” 

Donating such a large sum of money proves people see the potential of students, Keibler said.   

“The new scholarship has really impacted the applications to the program,” Keibler said. “We saw easily over 100 applications, which I call applied interest, in a month, so it’s growing.”  

There’s a lot of people behind the scenes that work with the foundation including the president, the career service team and the admissions team who gets the students on campus and the career services team.  

The program is open to students furthering their education in business administration, computer information systems and technology, criminal justice, education, industrial technology and communications.  

“We have seen huge growth this year in education and criminal justice applications,” Keibler said. “Still very solid in business administration across the board and computer science.” 

Colton Push, an incoming freshman receiving the scholarship, said the donation helped him finalize his college decision.  

“I wasn’t quite 100% sure, but now that I got the scholarship, that definitely helped,” Push said.  

Push said he plans to study business management during his time at Wayne.  

“I’m excited for the opportunities that it is able to give to you,” Push said. “I’ve gone on other college visits, and I’ve never heard of anything along these lines. I’ve never seen a program that not only gives you an internship but one that gives you it during your fourth year of education.”  

Push said the scholarship has already helped his current education.  

“The increased scholarship amount makes it a lot easier to focus on school,” Push said. “Before I was applying for two or more scholarships a day, but now I can just focus on my high school education and I think it will be the same in college.”  

“My theme with the incoming class is to begin with the end in mind,” Keibler said. “I want them to see the impact of everything out there. I think that’s what this whole scholarship is about.”