Two Bonney Lake High School graduates have earned scholarships from nonprofit credit union BECU.
Emily Davidson and Theresa Edwards both received $2,500 from the BECU Foundation for their extracurricular activities.
“When I found out that I had won the BECU scholarship, I was in utter shock,” Edwards said. “I was just randomly clearing e-mails when I read the one from BECU. I had to read it a few times before I quite realized what it meant. Then I immediately had to tell my parents. I was very excited.”
Davidson also found out via e-mail and had a similar reaction.
“I hadn’t checked my e-mail in a while, so I was shocked and then excited,” she said. “I ran up and down the stairs, telling my parents I had won the scholarship.”
The BECU Foundation scholarship was awarded to 40 student members of the credit union, out of more than 600 applicants. A volunteer selection committee of local business, education and non-profit leaders judged applications on a combination of academics, leadership and community service. The committee focused on service activities, reading essays that asked applicants to describe their most meaningful service experiences.
For her senior project, Davidson led a group of like-minded Christian classmates in a fundraising campaign to travel to Mexico and help build a home for a single mother and her family. She and her team raised $5,000 for the building supplies and $1,000 per student to make the trip to Mexico, generating funds from bingo games, car washes and garage sales. They were able to budget the improvements economically by purchasing bunk beds and other furniture and supplies in-country.
Davidson grew close to the family they performed the work for, she said.
“It was just a great experience,” she said. “The mother was crying because her children had never had wooden bunk beds before.”
Edwards worked as a volunteer camp counselor for Girl Scouts. A lifelong Girl Scout herself, she started as a fourth-grader by helping her mother manage a camp and accrued more and more responsibility over the years.
“I started taking on more and more responsibility and becoming more and more involved in the planning process of the camp as well as taking on a large part of the job of running the camp,” Edwards said. “Working with the girls is always a fun experience. I’ve found that the more ridiculous you act, the more fun the girls have.
“Working with the younger girls though has always been easy for me. I’ve never had much of an issue keeping them happy. It is working with the other teenagers and adults volunteers that has proved to be the biggest learning stretch for me. I’ve learned a lot about how to interact with people in general and how to get them to do what needs to be done without making them feel like they are being bossed around.”
Though Edwards graduated BLHS in 2009 and is going into her second year at Willamette University, she has continued her involvement with the Scouts. She signed up for a lifetime membership and most recently worked as a counselor at a science camp for girls during summer 2010.
The scholarship money will help with the steep costs of college, she said.
“I’ve had to learn about the process of taking out a loan as well as having to bear the burden of knowing that I am in debt to someone else,” she said. “Every bit helps though and the BECU scholarship definitely is helping me to be able to afford school.”
Davidson attended Pierce College and Green River Community College for one year each after graduating BLHS in 2008. She is transferring to Western Washington University in the fall and plans to use her scholarship on tuition and books.
