Madelyn Winter, a recent graduate from Ridgefield High School, was among 78 high school seniors, who received scholarships for up to $5,200 per year for two years from the Washington Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board.
Along with the seniors, 30 community and technical college students also received the scholarships, which totaled $1.1 million.
Winter will go to Clark College for two years to obtain her prerequisites for a degree in psychology.
“I just graduated about a week ago and I also went to Cascadia Tech, where I was a part of the hospitality and tourism program for two years,” Winter said.
After two years at Clark College, Winter plans to transfer to another higher education institution. Her goal is to become an addiction counselor.
Winter was in the National Honor Society and was a varsity athlete on the track and field team while at Ridgefield High School. She was also a member of the International Thespian Society and performed in school plays.
“I’m just really grateful for it and I really appreciate it. The scholarship will help me just pay for my education,” Winter said. “I won’t have to worry about too much, the financial situation through community college for the first two years.”
In the fall, she plans to take general psychology, some electives and plans to finish some of her prerequisites.
“The first two years, I should have my associate’s degree, and then the way that I met up with my advisor, they scheduled my classes so that it would be easy to transfer to another college in Washington state,” Winter said.
Once she has her associate’s degree, she plans to transfer with a junior standing to another school to complete her bachelor’s degree, followed by a few more years to secure her master’s degree in psychology.
With her focus on addiction studies, Winter hopes to bring back her skills and launch her career in Clark County.
“I was actually in foster care for about three years due to my biological parents’ addiction issues,” Winter said. “I have a lot of personal connections with it and I just am really passionate about helping other people that have experienced having family members with addiction or just helping people with addiction themselves.”
Winter said she has seen a big need for addiction counselors in Southwest Washington.
“I think drug addiction has risen so much in the past few years, especially in the Portland area, the Vancouver area, so I think there’s definitely some job opportunities here and I really want to help out in my community,” Winter said.
Andrew Lenderman, with the Workforce Board, said the scholarships are a “win-win” because “it helps students advance their careers and also addresses our ongoing skilled labor shortage.”
Lenderman said the scholarships aim to ease one of the top concerns employers have expressed in surveys over the past several years, which is the lack of qualified workers.
The lack of qualified workers has limited the ability of a business to expand as the state population grows, he said. If businesses are unable to grow due to a lack of qualified workers, the ability to build-up and educate qualified workers becomes harder.
“These things directly impact our economy and quality of life, so investing in the workforce is a win-win all around and some great examples from this year, we’ve also managed to talk to a student from the Moses Lake area studying to become a commercial pilot,” Lenderman said. “There is a student studying to become a nurse to address the nursing shortage in the area. We met a wonderful person who’s studying to be an early childhood education teacher and to study American Sign Language over in the Tri-Cities.”
Lenderman said the application process for the Workforce Board scholarships will open next year, likely around March. For updates and more information, go online to wtb.wa.gov/wave.
The scholarship was established by the Washington State Legislature in 1984 to recognize and highlight the achievements of the state’s best career and technical education students, according to Lenderman.
