NDSU graduate student Janice Edwards-Atkinson earned a $1,000 Excellence Award for use towards her master’s degree in community development. The scholarship, awarded July 1, is from Great Plains Interactive Distance Education Alliance, known as Great Plains IDEA.

Edwards-Atkinson, who is from Winnipeg, Manitoba, is one of five students to receive the scholarship this year. To qualify, she needed to be attaining a bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or certificate in a Great Plains IDEA degree program from a Great Plains IDEA member university. The alliance’s governing cabinet reviewed the students’ goals and granted the awards.

A total of 19 accredited universities are members of Great Plains IDEA. In various combinations, universities together offer nine human sciences and 10 agriculture programs online.

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