Scholarship Recipient Poised to Change Lives

Annette Carpenter, 19, is driven to help people.

Carpenter of Soap Lake, Washington hit the ground running when she arrived at EWU, in 2023, with two years of credits under her belt and ready to advance her education. Today, she is working toward a double major in psychology and Gender, Women’s and Sexuality Studies.

“I knew going into psychology that I wanted to work with people and now I have a more solid sense of direction,” says Carpenter, who plans to advance to graduate school to earn a Doctor of Psychology degree.

Carpenter was thrilled to receive a scholarship, saying “My biggest thing is just to say thank you.”

Although Carpenter holds down a work-study job in the Student Employment Office, the scholarship provides some wiggle room to explore courses that reflect people of all different backgrounds to help ensure she can build a practice that serves a wide variety of people as a future counselor and researcher. 

Carpenter is looking forward to internships in clinical work and applying research – not just doing research. 

“Wanting to be more clinical, of course, my main focus is getting people help and mental help that’s like going to be scientifically sound and actually help them,” Carpenter says.

Although Carpenter is still in the middle of her educational journey, getting started at EWU made perfect sense. Not only is it affordable, it’s a short 2-hour drive from her hometown, she says, and her older sister is an EWU graduate.

“Going to Eastern was kind of like a no-brainer for me,” Carpenter says.