The University of St. Thomas

The John C. Gessner Lifelong Learning Scholarship

The John C. Gessner Lifelong Learning Scholarship

The John C. Gessner Lifelong Learning Scholarship is available to Undergraduate Evening Program students who have demonstrated outstanding academic achievement and a commitment to continuous learning as adult part-time student.

To apply for the John C. Gessner Lifelong Leaning Scholarship a student must:

The maximum amount of the award will be made based on the following guidelines:

  • $400 - 3.40-3.59 GPA
  • $600 - 3.60-3.79 GPA
  • $800 - 3.80-4.00 GPA

John C. "Jack" Gessner was a faculty member and chair of the Sociology Department at the University of St. Thomas at the time of his death in 1991. Though a member of the St. Thomas community for only six years, his views on education were embraced as visionary.

As a student of social change, I consider higher education to be on the threshold of great transformation as it positions itself for the twenty-first century. . . . I see higher education moving toward greater integration of its existent programs, toward the creation of new, interdisciplinary, flexible, and market-based programs and toward new kinds of 'customers' and formats.
        - John C. Gessner

Jack's personal beliefs, his own quest for knowledge, and his devotion to teaching others reflected his cherished ideal that gaining and using knowledge allows humanity to perform at its highest and noblest. His voracious appetite for new information portrayed his belief that learning is a lifelong experience and should never cease at the end of a class or upon graduation or at a certain point in one's life. To that end, Jack's support of the flexible, market-based program that was created as the Undergraduate Evening Program was an enactment of his beliefs that education should never be considered complete.

. . . the key role of the teacher is to uplift one's students by an enthusiasm for learning, by an attitude of caring for them as persons experiencing life at their particular stages of cognitive/emotional development, and by giving an example of moral and scholarly integrity. A tall order . . . yet ever the mission of the true teacher!
        - John C. Gessner

Application deadlines are:

  • Fall term             August 15
  • Spring term         January 15
  • Summer term      May 14