VALDOSTA, Ga. (WALB) - A major investment is helping grow Georgia’s rural education workforce with full scholarships now available for paraprofessionals and working adults looking to become certified teachers.

In 2022, Valdosta State University moved its Elementary Education program online. In 2023, VSU was delivered $750,000 from Senator Jon Ossoff as part of the Congressionally Directed Spending Award, allowing the university to fund scholarships for adults and paraprofessionals in rural schools.

The fully online program allows students flexibility while funding covers everything from tuition to textbooks.

More than 60 paraprofessionals have already received scholarships, making this a game changer for South Georgia’s workforce.

Larae Hendrix, a student at Valdosta State University, said, “I wrote about my life and why I chose education. I received the scholarship, and I was very excited.”

Hendrix said that this scholarship will help her graduate by May 2026.

“It’s going to be beneficial financially a lot because right now, working in the school system without a degree — you don’t make that much, but once I finish my degree, I’ll be making teacher salary,” she said.

Hendrix will accept a position in rural Georgia where school systems are struggling to fill teacher positions.

Dr. David Slykhuis, the Dean of the College of Education and Human Services at VSU, said, “Now you have a person who is there, who is interested in becoming a classroom teacher. And now we have this scholarship opportunity where they can get the degree, get the credentials that they need and they can move from a paraprofessional to a teacher and essentially double their salary.”

VSU has enough funding for one more year, but there are opportunities for all educators.

“If you’re coming right out of high school, we have programs for you. We have these programs to help people complete their bachelor’s online. If you already have a bachelor’s, we have MAT programs that help you become teachers. We need teachers, and we are excited to prepare as many teachers as we can,” Slykhuis said.

Ten students have already graduated from the program, now teaching in the same rural communities they once served as paraprofessionals.

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