Only 10 high school seniors earn Washington State University’s prestigious Distinguished Regents Scholar award, which covers all tuition and mandatory fees for four years at WSU. This year, not one but two Ferndale High School students earned that full ride scholarship.
This news was so surprising to AJ Schuman and her family that they didn’t believe it was true at first.
“My family was wondering, ‘What’s the catch?’” she said. “We kept quiet about it for a week, until we got that second confirmation email.”
When Alli Brunson received the email from WSU, she was bursting with excitement – but she had to hold back the celebration for an hour because she was still in the middle of class.
“I wanted to yell, I wanted to tell my family and my friends, but I couldn’t,” Brunson said, laughing. “As soon as the bell rung, I sprinted out to my car and called my sister, my boyfriend, my family, everyone.”
Brunson and Schuman both heard about the Distinguished Regents scholarship through their counselor at FHS – Sierra Hills and Bobby Jones, respectively. Jones said that he’s never seen any Ferndale student receive this hard-to-get award, let alone two in the same year.
“It’s phenomenal!” he said. “To have two people from the same school get it is amazing – especially two people who are super excited about being Cougars.”
Brunson – whose mom was a cheerleader for the Cougars – has had WSU on her list of potential college for a few years, so filling out the scholarship form was a no-brainer.
The same goes for Schuman, who was hoping to attend the university’s top-notch agricultural science program. Schuman is hoping to start a career in plant biotech and research.
“I have been interested in plant science since middle school,” she said. “Taking horticultural classes here at the high school really developed my love and interest in botany.”
Brunson plans to study nursing and take pre-med classes, with the goal of becoming either a labor/delivery nurse or an obstetrician gynecologist.
“I’ve always had an aptitude for the healthcare field,” she said. “My mom is a nurse, so I’ve always been around it, and it feels like something I’m supposed to do.”
To earn the scholarship, Brunson and Schuman had to fill out about 15 short essays. They also had to have a grade point average of 3.6 or higher (meaning they had to average about a 90% for every class).
Brunson thanked the Ferndale community for supporting recent school levies, which enriched her education.
“Because of the levy they just passed, it allowed me to take a lot of the higher-level classes at Ferndale, like Associated Placement and College in the High School,” she said. “I feel like that helped my scholarship application.”
Schuman encouraged any students interested in attending WSU in the future to go for the Distinguished Regents scholarship.
“The short writing essays make it so easy to apply for, and you’re already doing the general scholarship application,” she said. “If you’re applying for WSU, you should definitely apply for this scholarship.”