Student Success:

Scholarships create lasting opportunities for students.

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Scholarships allow students to make academic and career decisions based on passion, potential, and purpose—not financial barriers or other limitations.

When a student can choose a path based on passion and purpose instead of finances, they go on to serve and lead with gratitude, creativity, and a pay-it-forward spirit that gives back again and again.

The Viterbo Effect will expand scholarship opportunities so students can confidently choose Viterbo for their college education. Specifically, we aim to raise $14 million in scholarship and student support funds for the following:

impact pillar 1

Student Success

Goal: $14 million

Eliminates financial barriers to a Viterbo education for more students and equips them to practice servant leadership in communities around the world.

  • General Scholarships
  • Need-Based Scholarships
  • Focused Scholarships
  • Enrichment Scholarships

General Scholarships

Gifts to general scholarships support current and future students through a combination of merit-based, need-based, and other financial aid. General scholarship funds allow Viterbo’s leaders and educators the greatest flexibility to direct financial support to the students who need it most.

Enrichment Scholarships

Enrichment scholarships help students connect their studies to real-world applications, including study abroad, service trips, academic conferences, leadership experiences, and more. These opportunities help students see first-hand the difference they can make with their Viterbo education.

Need-Based Scholarships

Students and their families are counting on Viterbo to continue delivering a high-quality education that sets them up for success while helping them reduce or eliminate the burden of student debt. Helping today’s students—the future professionals who will one day care for, educate, and lead our world—is the right thing to do.

Focused Scholarships

A student is far more than what they study. That’s why we offer scholarships that celebrate diversity, address needs, support student athletes, and empower service leadership across industries. Gifts toward focused scholarships are designated for a specific purpose, student population, major, or program.

Diversity Scholarships
Scholarships for students from underrepresented communities and identities with demonstrated financial need. These scholarships also help ensure that Viterbo’s student body reflects the spectrum of lived experiences and the communities in which our graduates will live and work. 
Artistic Scholarships
Scholarships to attract, support, and retain creative minds who wish to study at the Conservatory for the Performing Arts. Artistic scholarships help ensure that promising young artists have the time, energy, and financial means to pursue their creative interests, in the classroom and on the stage.
Athletic Scholarships
Scholarships to recruit top-notch students looking for a well-rounded college experience that includes competitive athletics. Athletic scholarships provide student-athletes with opportunities for competitive success, leadership development, and personal growth within the context of teamwork, service, and Franciscan values.
Major-Specific Scholarships
Scholarships to recruit and retain talented students into fields where they can make a measurable difference. These departmental scholarships encourage emerging leaders of all kinds to explore their strengths while learning and embedding Catholic Franciscan values into practice at work and in life.
The Viterbo Effect:

Christopher Nelson

Organizational management, 2019
MBA, Health Care Leadership, 2020

Gundersen Health System

After earning an associate degree from Western Technical College, Christopher Nelson visited Viterbo and fell in love with the supportive staff, campus, and the mission. But he was also worried about how he was going to afford it—even working full time. After his first semester, his fears became reality. He needed a financial miracle. Luckily for him, miracles happen. An anonymous donor heard about Christopher’s situation and arranged to pay his tuition. Today, Christopher has taken that gift, and the education that came with it, and is paying it forward in ways he never expected.

2018

Even working full time, Christopher is having trouble keeping up with tuition and living expenses.

Just when he thinks he’ll need to withdraw from Viterbo, an anonymous donor pays his tuition in full.

2019

Christopher begins his career at Gundersen Health System in the Medical Foundation. The first ripple—giving back to those who give forward. 

Because of Viterbo’s 2+2 program and the support of an anonymous donor, Christopher graduates with an undergraduate degree in organizational management.

Christopher returns to
Viterbo to get his master’s in health care leadership.

2020

Christopher applies the knowledge and skills he gained at Viterbo and transitions to Gundersen’s organizational development team. 

He graduates with a master’s degree in health care leadership.

To pay it forward at Viterbo, Christopher takes a board position with Viterbo University’s Alumni Association.

2024

Christopher works at Gundersen delivering better outcomes via improved digital experiences 
 that impact 10,000+ employees and 100,000+ patients. 

He is also an adjunct professor at another four-year university.

Blessed by a generous donor and Viterbo’s education, Christopher enjoys enriching the lives of patients, staff, and students, daily.