Saint Leo University has joined with the Suwannee County School District to provide education benefits to its employees. The university, with locations in nearby Madison and Lake City, has signed a preferred provider agreement with the school district.
Suwannee district employees will receive a 10 percent tuition discount if they enroll at Saint Leo. The discount is applied first and then any grants an employee/student receives are deducted.
“This relieves the financial burden of the cost of tuition for individuals who are trying to increase their knowledge and grow professionally,” said Jessica Markham, director of Saint Leo University’s Madison and Lake City education centers.
The partnership also will allow more paraprofessionals and teachers to have access to continuing education through Saint Leo’s local offices. The discount also is added to district employees’ benefits package.
Saint Leo is known for its education program and for preparing future teachers and educators. Many Saint Leo alumni go on to be named “teachers of the year” for their schools and their school districts. The university offers more field experience through supervised internships. Through a series of internships, students accumulate more than 800 hours of field experience by senior year—almost double the hours recommended by the American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education.
The university offers a private-school education at an affordable cost, and the partnership will make it more accessible for Suwannee County School District employees.
“This partnership reiterates Saint Leo’s core values of responsible stewardship and community,” Markham said. “It also gives us the ability to reach a wider population in the counties we serve.”
Saint Leo’s Madison Education Center is at 126 S.W. Sumatra Ave., Suite A, Madison, FL 32340. Classes are taught at North Florida Community College. For information, email madison@saintleo.edu or call (850) 973-3356.
The Lake City Education Center is on the Florida Gateway College campus at 149 S.E. College Place, Lake City, FL 32025. For information, email lakecity@saintleo.edu or call (386) 200-3780.
The main campus of the university is in Pasco County, north of Tampa. More information may be found at www.saintleo.edu.
About Saint Leo University
Saint Leo University (www.saintleo.edu) is a modern Catholic teaching university that is firmly grounded in the liberal arts tradition and the timeless Benedictine wisdom that seeks balanced growth of mind, body, and spirit. The Saint Leo University of today is a private, nonprofit institution that creates hospitable learning communities wherever students want to be or need to be, whether that is a campus classroom, a web-based environment, an employer’s worksite, a military base, or an office park. Saint Leo welcomes people of all faiths and of no religious affiliation, and encourages learners of all generations.
The university remains the faithful steward of the beautiful lakeside University Campus in the Tampa Bay region of Florida, where its founding monks created the first Catholic college in the state in 1889. Serving nearly 12,000 students, Saint Leo maintains a physical presence in seven states. The university provides highly respected online learning programs to students nationally and internationally. More than 93,000 alumni reside in all 50 states, in Washington, DC, in three U.S. territories, and in 76 countries.
Media Contact: Mary McCoy, University Writer & Media Relations, mary.mccoy02@saintleo.edu, (352) 588-7118 or cell (813) 610-8416