BVU, St. Mary’s Schools Grow Through Strategic Partnership
St. Mary's joins BVU as a Strategic Partner. Through this partnership, St. Mary's can offer educational opportunities including tuition grants and professional development opportunities to their employees.
Buena Vista University (BVU) and St. Mary’s Catholic Schools in Storm Lake have entered a Strategic Partnership for the benefit of the University, St. Mary’s Parish, and the communities both entities serve.
Within this partnership, employees of St. Mary’s Catholic Schools, as well as their spouses and dependents, may receive grant funding to lower the overall cost of education while enrolled in classes at BVU’s Storm Lake campus. Partner grant funding also lowers the cost per credit hour for students enrolled in BVU’s convenient online/hybrid undergraduate programs or the organizational leadership graduate program.
BVU professors and staff are also available for training programs, workshops, and more should St. Mary’s administrators and teachers seek those services and expertise.
“Having even more accessibility to BVU degrees for ourselves and our family members is a wonderful benefit for us.”
Ryan Berg '97, St. Mary's Middle School and High School Principal
“For more than 100 years, St. Mary’s and Buena Vista University have been proud partners in Storm Lake,” says the Rev. Brent Lingle, President of St. Mary’s. “This new Strategic Partnership allows our employees and their families a means to continue their education at BVU, exciting all of us as they grow professionally and personally in serving future generations through our schools.”
For decades, BVU and St. Mary’s have enjoyed strong bonds, both physically and educationally. The Beavers, for example, played home basketball games at St. Mary’s decades ago. Throughout the history of both entities, BVU students have completed class observation hours and served as student-teachers at St. Mary’s.
Dozens of BVU education majors, perhaps more, have started or continued their teaching career within the St. Mary’s Schools, including Ryan Berg, a 1997 graduate of BVU, who serves as St. Mary’s Middle School and High School Principal, and Kate Swanson, St. Mary’s Elementary School Principal and a 2007 BVU graduate.
“As BVU alumni, we’ve addressed BVU students on steps they can take in better equipping themselves for their future, whether that’s in education or other areas of the workforce,” Berg says. “Having even more accessibility to BVU degrees for ourselves and our family members is a wonderful benefit for us.”
St. Mary’s Schools, established more than a century ago in Storm Lake, employs 60 and serves Storm Lake-area students from PK through grade 12.
“We’re extremely excited to build upon our relationship with St. Mary’s by entering a Strategic Partnership,” says Katie Smith, BVU Director of Strategic Partnerships. “It will be wonderful to see staff members continue their education at BVU while receiving a savings. Through education, it is our mission at BVU to work to create stronger cities, towns, organizations, and people across Iowa, the Midwest, and beyond.”
“We are grateful to serve a community impacted in innumerable ways by Buena Vista University,” Lingle concludes. “Going forward, the Strategic Partnership between St. Mary’s and BVU will strengthen this wonderful community.”
For more information about BVU’s Strategic Partnerships and partner opportunities, please visit the BVU website at bvu.edu/strategic-partnerships or contact Katie Smith at SmithK@bvu.edu.