Five Eagles. Five Siblings. Five Scholarships. Five Awesome Success Stories.

Anna Schilter (class of 2017), who is double majoring in international affairs and Spanish, has been inspired by awesome donors. “That’s what I think about when I’m applying for scholarships, is really the donor behind the scholarships. They’re sacrificing a portion of what they make, and they’re investing in my future. That really helps to motivate me to do better in school because I know someone has invested in my future. No matter if they’re investing $2,000 or investing $200, they both mean the exact same amount to me. They’re both making a huge impact on my education.”

Anna proudly stands on the shoulders of her older brothers and sisters who set a great example for her. Sisters, Tessa ’07 and Chelsea ’09, and brothers, Daniel ’13 and Joseph ’14, earned scholarships while studying at Eastern. Today, they are all successfully employed in careers that are relevant to their undergraduate degrees.

“It was very important to me to attend college,” Tessa says, “but it was also important to me to avoid going into debt for my education. Without the Presidential Scholarship, I would not have been able to do that.”

To qualify for the $3,000-per-year Presidential Scholarship, EWU’s new freshmen must be Washington residents and possess a 3.80 or higher high school GPA or a 1250 or higher SAT sum of reading and math scores (or comparable ACT of 28 or higher). To renew each school year, recipients must maintain a minimum 3.50 cumulative EWU GPA.

“My experience at EWU was excellent,” Tessa says. “I was encouraged to expand my horizons, and journalism classes, in particular, taught me to embrace my natural curiosity. I graduated from EWU with a double major in organizational communication and journalism, and I have been able to apply my education successfully in my current career. It may seem like a simple thing to communicate with others, but to do so effectively across a variety of mediums takes skill. I am grateful for the education I received at EWU because it prepared me for the responsibilities I have now.”

Tessa honed her verbal communications craft on Eastern’s debate team and journalism skills as a writer for The Easterner. While at EWU, she attended an informational meeting about the Peace Corps and decided to join after graduation. She spent 27 months in Malawi working on HIV/AIDS prevention and education activities in a small village in the northern part of the country.

“Upon returning home from Malawi, I began applying for jobs with USDA Forest Service and I am currently the executive assistant to the forest supervisor on the Kootenai National Forest in Libby, Montana.”

Chelsea reflects on her Phi Theta Kappa (PTK) Scholarship, Presidential Scholarship, and her Eastern experience with gratitude. “Today, I feel very aware of the financial strain many families experience in trying to support even one child through college,” she says. “It’s brought home to me that my siblings and I were all incredibly fortunate to have access to scholarship funds that removed a lot of that anxiety from our family. It’s also worth noting that EWU offers the least-expensive in-state tuition of all public universities in the state of Washington. At a very personal level – for helping to make my academic and career goals a reality – I feel a strong sense of gratitude to EWU and to the many other organizations that make education accessible for students who aspire to a higher level of learning, in spite of limited financial means.”

The PTK Scholarship is available to PTK members transferring directly from their community college to EWU with no gap in enrollment. Seven annual awards are available on a competitive application basis.

Chelsea likes to quote American politician and educational reformer, Horace Mann, who said, “Education then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, the balance-wheel of the social machinery.”

“That quote resonates with me whenever I meet current and former students – many from financially-challenged families – who sacrifice daily comforts and receive financial aid to be able to afford the privilege of a liberal arts education,” Chelsea says.

Chelsea also believes the inclusive environment at EWU sparked a desire to bring value back to the community in which she lives. “This is true for all of my siblings,” she says. “As I consider the types of activities we were involved with at EWU – from student government and working on the campus newspaper to participating in club and recreational activities – I strongly feel that Eastern encouraged our exploration and education beyond the classroom, and helped each of us carve out different paths to purposeful work.”

Chelsea earned her degree in English, and today is a writer for a creative agency.

With help from the Eastern Advantage (EA) Scholarship, Daniel earned a degree in mechanical engineering. EA is a first-year experience program that annually awards 250 $1,500 scholarships to qualified incoming freshmen. EA is dedicated to helping students find the resources they need to succeed as first-generation college students at EWU.

“Eastern primarily helped me build the career skills that I took back home to my community in southwest Washington as a mechanical engineer at the Kapstone Pulp and Paper Corp.,” Daniel says. “Eastern helped me to build leadership skills and a group of lasting friends. Financially, the return on my investment has been significant.”

To support the needs of today’s business and industry, EWU partners with the state of Washington to offer funding to students in high-demand academic programs. More than 140 students annually receive a tuition reduction worth up to $2,000. Full-time students with a 3.0 or higher cumulative GPA in engineering/engineering technology, health and life sciences, secondary education (math, science, Spanish), computer science, or mathematics are automatically considered for this competitive award.

Joseph earned the High Demand First Year Grant and an EWU Scholastic Honors Scholarship, reserved for Eastern’s best and brightest students.

“Receiving grants and scholarships from EWU allowed me to spend more time focusing on my studies and less time working part-time jobs to pay for school,” Joseph says. “Not only did EWU scholarships provide me the financial ability to take a full credit load each quarter and graduate from college in a reasonable amount of time, they drastically reduced stress and enabled me to graduate debt-free.”

Joseph credits EWU with challenging him to think critically and enlightening him to different ways of thinking through math, science, technology, and humanities classes.

“At EWU, I developed friendships with students from vastly different backgrounds and gained insight from professors well versed in their fields,” he says. “I enjoyed intramural sports, rafting, rock climbing, mountaineering, and ice climbing excursions with Epic Adventures.”

His Eastern experience also included employment as the advertising manager for The Easterner. “This opportunity allowed me to gain business management skills in running the advertising department,” Joseph says. “In this role, I developed professional relationships with businesses and professionals in local, regional and national markets, and honed public communication and social skills.

“While attending EWU, I studied natural sciences earning a BS in geology, which ultimately led me to my present occupation as a geotechnical field technician. My education in natural science and involvement in EPIC Adventures fueled my love of the outdoors. Today I live in Bellevue, Washington, which is close to the North Cascades, where I spend most of my weekends.”

When you support scholarships for EWU students like the Schilters, awesome things happen. You can inspire awesome with a gift today.