Leaning into the growing of their own, University of Texas Permian Basin announced Wednesday a total $10 million donation from Permian Strategic Partnership and the Scharbauer Foundation for behavioral health master’s degree scholarships.
A news conference to announce the grant was held at the UTPB library. The grant included $5 million each from PSP and the Scharbauer Foundation.
UTPB President Sandra Woodley said the partnership between the university, PSP and Scharbauer Foundation would significantly impact families in the Basin.
“Starting this fall, you will be able to earn your master’s degree in clinical psychology, social work or counseling for free thanks to a $10 million grant from PSP and the Scharbauer Foundation,” Woodley said.
The grant is available to anyone with a bachelor’s degree in any field.
“We are so humbled by this investment and we know that it’s a deep responsibility of this university to step up and make sure that we provide the workforce that’s needed here in the Permian Basin. We know first hand at the university how important mental health is and all the behavioral health needs of our community. We, like many of you out there, struggle with getting the services that we need just to keep up with the basic demand,” Woodley said.
She added that UTPB wants to be cutting edge, not just keep up.
“Scholarships like these for graduate students are truly very rare,” Woodley said.
There are scholarships for undergraduate work, but it’s an important time to have this available.
The competitive grant will cover the tuition and mandatory fees for up to three years and is available to anyone in the 22-county area that makes up the Permian Basin in West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico.
The first cohort of an estimated 95 students will start in just a few weeks.
Officials said a job will be waiting for graduates when they complete their degree because the need is so great.
Deadline to apply is Aug. 1 and Woodley said information is available on the UTPB website.
Tracee Bentley, president and CEO of PSP, said behavioral health is one of the top needs that the organization identified as far as healthcare four or five years ago.
One of the exciting parts to Bentley is that the funds will go toward students who live in the Permian Basin who are already invested in making this community the “wonderful place that it is.”
“And now we’re able to offer scholarships so they can reinvest … again in our community and provide a critical, critical need that currently we don’t have. Knowing that this money is going to serve students right here means an awful lot,” Bentley said.
Senior Vice President for Student Affairs and Enrollment Management Becky Spurlock said the program is intended to take in four cohorts of students that they will follow all the way through the process.
“Right now, we are focused on watching this and advancing these programs. We will continue to look for funds to support these programs, but I think right now, our focus is on advancing this initial gift, which should carry us through a significant number of people — hundreds of people that will benefit from this. So it is a pretty significant impact that will happen for at least seven years,” Spurlock said.
These are 60-hour master’s degrees and take two and a half to three years to complete. They are longer than other programs because they are regulated by the state and the licensure organizations.
Over time, the institution is planning to develop accelerated master’s degree programs that will allow students to start at the end of their undergraduate career and begin the process, which will shorten the time toward a graduate degree, she added.
Grant Billingsley, president and CEO of the Scharbauer Foundation, said West Texas can’t wait for someone to step in and help. People here have to take care of things themselves.
Billingsley said he anticipates working with UTPB on more partnerships.
He said he wants people to know that they’re going to be working on how to get them to the next level to a counseling position with one of the hospitals, the behavioral health hospital that’s going to be built, or one of the counseling agencies in the area.
“They all have people crying for help and we’ve got to get them help. So I think we’re starting today,” Billingsley said.
