Over 300 Gather In St. Cloud To Empower Women Through Education

ST. CLOUD (WJON News)  -- An organization dedicated to helping women achieve their higher education goals held its state meeting in St. Cloud this weekend. The Philanthropic Education Organization (PEO) held its state convention at the River's Edge Convention Center with over 330 members in attendance.

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PEO has been supporting women in education by giving out scholarships, low-interest loans, and grants for over 100 years. Convention Coordinator Holly Schellbach says they help in a lot of ways and on a lot of levels:

"It's furthering their education in whatever area they are choosing, so it's women going back to school later in life, it's women graduating from high school and going on to get a college degree or an associate's degree or however they're hoping to further their education. We also have just started recently a Rising Hope Fund, which helps people that are going back to their GEDs."

PEO Has Over 197,000 Members Across the United States and Canada

Since its inception, PEO has provided over $435 million to more than 125,000 women around the world. PEO has six core areas of support for women to further their education, but Schellbach says the chapters support each other, too:

"Most chapters meet monthly and have a little bit of a business meeting, and then we do programs, and so everybody in our organization is very interested in lifelong learning and different forms of education, and so we learn from each other, we do fun activities, and then again the fundraising, different fundraising activities too."

 

P.E.O. Celebrated Its 150th Anniversary in 2019

Schellbach says one of the highlights of the convention is hearing past recipients speak about how PEO's support has impacted their lives.

She says PEO has 134 chapters across the state, and they meet annually to vote on amendments and bylaws, and to have some fun. The Philanthropic Educational Organization was founded in 1869 by seven students at Iowa Wesleyan College.

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