Colleen Juni-Perry (middle) stands with PEO Chapter EU President Jane Walsh (left) and PEO Continuing Education Program Chair Nancy Byrne.

NEW ULM – Thanks to the Philanthropic Educational Organization (PEO) Sisterhood, a New Ulm woman gets to go back to school.

PEO works with women in all 50 states and 10 Canadian provinces to help fund their educational goals. This includes women who are looking to go back to school. The PEO’s Program for Continuing Education provides need-based grants to women whose education was interrupted and need to return to school to support themselves and their families.

Colleen Juni-Perry has been selected to receive one of these grants for $4,000. PEO Chapter EU President Jane Walsh said Juni-Perry was one among many from across the US and Canada considered to receive a grant.

“When we hear of somebody we think could benefit from one of these programs, either through somebody in the community or the person approaches us, we interview them,” Walsh said. “We decide as a chapter if we think they’re worthy of our support. We send a letter to [headquarters in] Des Moines, then it’s out of our hands.”

Since the grant program was established in 1973, Juni-Perry is only the second New Ulm woman to receive one. She heard of the program from her grandmother, Mayor Kathleen Backer, who recommended she apply.

Juni-Perry received a Bachelor’s in Psychology in 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit right after her graduation, a realization struck.

“I decided clinical psychology isn’t what I want to do with my life,” Juni-Perry said. “I was in Kentucky at the time because I got my bachelor’s degree at the University of Louisville. I moved back home to New Ulm and started looking at different schooling opportunities.”

Holistic health ended up grabbing her attention, and she got her Associate’s in 2021. She also got married and gave birth to her first daughter. Now, with a second on the way and looking to further her holistic health journey, Juni-Perry is going for her Bachelor’s in Massage Therapy.

“There’s only so much that FAFSA can give you, and I have capped that amount,” she said. “This grant is paying for my first semester in full, and I’m very thankful for that.”

Without this grant, Juni-Perry said it would have taken much longer for her to go back.

“To know we can make a difference in a woman’s life,” Walsh said. “It’s the whole reason I give to PEO, and have been a PEO since 1975.”

For more information, contact Jane Walsh at 911 Cottonwood Street in New Ulm.