Community scholarships total more than $342,000 for WHS seniors
Career Center Adviser Colleen Parks
Wenatchee High School seniors received over $342,000 in scholarships at Senior Awards Night on May 19. They were honored for achievements in academics, leadership, community service and others.
Seniors Elizabeth Sitio-Herrera and Danielle Heins were frequently called to the stage, receiving 12 and nine scholarships respectively.
“I’m very thankful,” Sitio-Herrera said. “I knew about a few of the scholarships but I didn’t expect to receive a lot of the other ones.”
Heins expressed similar feelings of gratitude.
“It felt good. I was just excited because I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to attend the school I wanted because my financial aid amount dropped,” she said.
Heins will be pursuing a degree in Music Composition or Piano Performance at Pacific Lutheran University. She received a merit scholarship from PLU, as well as a music scholarship.
Sitio-Herrera will be attending Gonzaga University for a Pre-Med degree, planning to be a pediatrician. She received the Dean’s Scholarship for academic merit.
The program changes every year, and depends on the scholarships WHS students are awarded. The donor of each scholarship decides whether or not to present at the awards night. 61 donors presented scholarships.
“We had 11 or 12 [scholarships] that we left out from last year, but we acquired that many more that people didn’t get the previous year,” Career Center Adviser Colleen Parks said.
This is the second year that the ceremony was held in the Old Commons.
As of May 22, Parks has tallied almost $1 million in financial aid from private scholarships, grants, university scholarships and federal financial aid programs.
Other students who were awarded multiple scholarships were seniors Katie Cordes, Drew Jaeger, Wendy Gong, Jackie Bollinger, Tess Fox, Tata Esquivel, Rheid Cline, Alexa Andre, Sohail Qazi, Bruce Cardenas, Garrett Christensen, Chandler Engel, Lupe Garnica, Maritza Mendoza, Teresa Mata, Dania Contreras, Lexi DaSilva, Tommy Higley, Michelle Nguyen, Genesis Reyes-Silva, Meghan Johnson, Jania Miranda, Tanya Garnica and Sara Phipps.
