Manson Village Tribune

Bachelor’s in accounting student recorded video at Wenatchee Valley College event this fall; her video is voted as most popular

SEATTLE (January 23, 2012) – Diana Vincent-Willoughby’s video is less than one minute long. But the story she shares – about being a stay-at-home mother and student at Washington online university WGU Washington – is now worth $1,000 toward her next term’s tuition.

WGU Washington announced that Vincent-Willoughby, of Manson, is the winner of the state-endorsed online college’s Billboard Video Contest. Videos were submitted from 28 students statewide over the fall, and then we put them before a public vote. View her video at youtu.be/iCQLux2gfk4..

WGU Washington was established in April 2011 by the State Legislature in partnership with nationally recognized Western Governors University as a state-endorsed, accredited, online university. It was designed to increase access to higher education for the state’s residents seeking bachelor’s or master’s degrees but unable to attend a physical campus – especially busy adults with some college experience, work experience related to their field of study, and unfinished degrees preventing them from taking the next step in their careers. In its first six months, WGU Washington’s student enrollment more than doubled, from fewer than 1,000 students in July 2011 to more than 2,000 in January 2012.

Vincent-Willoughby is a previous hotel employee who had to quit her job after her daughter was born premature. The baby had some health problems and continues to have a weakened immune system, preventing her from attending a daycare. Earning her degree on her schedule, online, and at home frees Vincent-Willoughby to care for her daughter, be with her son when he returns from school, and ready herself for a career that she expects to start after graduating – right around the time her daughter starts kindergarten, if all goes according to schedule.

“It’s just been a really great experience for us as a family,” Vincent-Willoughby says at the end of her video.

The video contest was part of WGU Washington’s introduction to the state, which began with one billboard, posted in Ephrata. The billboard was accompanied by TV and radio ads focused on the billboard’s lonely perch, positioned in the center of the state so as to be as close to all Washingtonians as possible. The billboard then went on a “statewide tour,” visiting college campuses, fairs, farmers markets, and events in every corner of the state. (View the TV ads to learn more about the billboard: http://bit.ly/wguwashington)

It was on this tour that students were invited to visit the billboard and record their video testimonials. Vincent-Willoughby made the two-hour round trip from her family’s orchard home in Manson to Wenatchee Valley College on October 17, 2011, because “I needed a break from working in the orchard.” She added, “Why not take a chance at it?”

She and her husband waited until her son got out of school that afternoon, drove the whole family to Wenatchee, recorded the video, and then turned around to get back in time for the boy’s evening soccer game.

She didn’t write a script or prepare too much for the video. “I had talked to other people before about WGU Washington and why I chose it,” she said. “So I just went off of what I had told them.”