Rocky Mountain Power Foundation Donation Supports Venture Course

OGDEN, Utah – Weber State University has received a $5,000 grant from the Rocky Mountain Power Foundation to support the Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities offered through the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities.

Each year, the Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities provides adults facing economic barriers with a chance to start college. The program is a yearlong, introductory humanities course taught by university faculty, and is modeled after the Clemente Course in the Humanities, which was created by educator and journalist Earl Shorris in 1995.

The course's curriculum includes sections on literature, American history, art history, philosophy and writing/critical thinking. The program's students attend class two evenings each week during fall and spring semesters, and upon completion receive 10 credits from WSU. It is free to admitted students and includes child care, bus service, books and supplies, as well as all other services provided to WSU students.

"The 19 students who graduated from this past year's Ogden Venture Course are from families below the poverty line, families for whom college would have seemed a decidedly unlikely possibility," said Madonne Miner, dean of the Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities. "But these 19 successfully participated in two semesters of college-level course work, connecting with each other, their five Weber State faculty members and some of Western culture's greatest minds."

One of the program's past students writes, "The Venture Course in Humanities that I have participated in … has been a most enlightening, rich experience for me. I feel very fortunate to have had the opportunity extended to me in these sections, which were all taught by the best teachers Weber State has to offer."

The Ogden Venture Course in the Humanities receives funding support from the Alternative Visions Fund of the Chicago Community Trust, Utah Humanities Council, Alan E. & Jeanne H. Hall Endowment for Community Outreach, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, Ogden-Weber Community Action Partnership and Telitha E. Lindquist College of Arts & Humanities.

The Rocky Mountain Power Foundation is part of the PacifiCorp Foundation, one of the largest utility-endowed foundations in the United States. The foundation was created in 1988 by PacifiCorp, an electric utility serving 1.7 million customers in six Western states as Rocky Mountain Power (Utah, Wyoming and Idaho) and Pacific Power (Oregon, Washington and California). The foundation's mission, through charitable investments, is to support the growth and vitality of the communities served by Pacific Power and Rocky Mountain Power. Visit rockymountainpower.net/rmpfoundation for more information.

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