Jessica Avalos

Jessica Avalos grew up in the agricultural community of Grandview, Washington as one of 11 children in the family. Her parents were strict about education – something they did not have the opportunity to complete themselves. Ultimately, this first-generation college student and her siblings were told, “Your happiness is what matters most.”

Jessica has found that happiness in preparing for a career in healthcare. When she was in middle school, she wanted to become a surgeon, but instead moved to Spokane after high school to live with family and pursue pre-med at EWU. She joined the first cohort in the new School of Nursing in the fall of 2023.

Diversity was also a draw for Jessica. “Eastern made it easy to get to know people,” she says. And while her first semester was hard, she is grateful for her professors and Department Chair Donna Bachand, who have listened and responded to student needs.

Bachand supported Jessica and fellow student Brooklyn Parkey in establishing the Eagle Nursing Student Association, to assist future nursing students as they prepare for careers in the Spokane region.

Jessica received the Proud Eagle Nursing Scholarship, which allowed her to move from part-time employment as a barista to working as a nursing technician while she finishes her degree.

“I really needed it,” she says appreciatively. “The Spokane housing market is so expensive, but this scholarship helped me to remain in stable housing while I changed jobs to work in my field.”

Established by alumni donors Kathy and Ken Privratsky, the Proud Eagle Nursing Scholarship Fund honors the heroic sacrifices of doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, while helping students in their home community to earn nursing degrees and inspire others.

Jessica hopes to someday meet the Privratskys and thank them in person. “They sound like such amazing and generous people,” she says. “I can’t believe they would do this for me, but I am so happy that they did.”

Brooklyn Parkey

“I love being an Eagle!”

When Brooklyn Parkey was seven years old, her mom went back to school to become a nurse – all while raising four children at home.

“I admire her so much,” Brooklyn says. “I never thought about how hard that was!”

Brooklyn graduated from high school in Spokane and enrolled at EWU. When she learned that Eastern would open the School of Nursing in the fall of 2023, she was excited that she did not have to transfer schools, and could remain an Eagle.

Upon learning that she had been awarded the Proud Eagle Nursing scholarship, Brooklyn recalls being excited: “With a scholarship, I can work less and focus more on my studies,” she says.

Established by alumni donors Kathy and Ken Privratsky, the Proud Eagle Nursing Scholarship Fund honors the heroic sacrifices of doctors and nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic, while helping students in their home community to earn nursing degrees and inspire others.

When Brooklyn graduates, she plans to stay in Spokane and follow in her mother’s footsteps, helping to meet the health-care needs of families in our region. And like her older siblings, who are also Eastern alumni, Brooklyn’s sister plans to enroll in the School of Nursing having been inspired by her mom and sister in a family of proud Eagles!

Janeli Sanchez, a 21-year-old from Orondo, Washington, is passionate about helping people lead healthier lives.

After earning her associate’s degree from Wenatchee Valley College, she transferred to EWU. She completed her Bachelor of Social Work degree last spring. Now Janeli is back home in Orondo and preparing to take online classes to become a licensed mental health counselor.

“I’m just working and getting more experience in the field while saving up to pay for my master’s degree,” she says.

The oldest of three children raised by hardworking parents who immigrated from Michoacán de Ocampo in west-central Mexico, Janeli is the first in her family to earn a college degree.

“My parents were beyond proud. They made a lot of sacrifices coming to this country and working hard so I could go to school,” Janeli reflects.

Janeli, who receives plenty of love and encouragement from her folks, said the cost of college and associated internships was beyond reach for her family and credits generous donors with opening the door for her to pursue a degree. “I’m beyond thankful that programs like this exist,” she says.

Washington Apple Education Foundation, which provides funds to students raised in families with direct ties to Washington’s tree-fruit industry, helped with some of Janeli’s educational expenses.

A Krumble Foundation internship stipend made it possible for her to put aside part-time jobs on campus and accept an unpaid internship at Excelsior Wellness, a Spokane-based nonprofit.

Excelsior Wellness provides intensive wrap-around services for young people experiencing mental health and behavior challenges, and their families.

By prioritizing vital experience in her field over the need to earn money to cover living expenses, Janeli gained hands-on learning that directly ties in with her goal of becoming a counselor. In addition, the résumé-building internship helped her to gain employment as a case manager for a Wenatchee-based nonprofit right after graduation.

“I think that scholarship donors don’t always know the huge impact they have on the lives of students,” explains Janeli, who adds, “They truly make everything possible.”

During winter break, an EWU student traveled home for the holidays. A medical emergency caused the need for an expensive MRI. An unexpected event like that can create hopelessness and more debt for students. Without help from the Student Emergency Fund (SEF), many students facing daunting financial challenges would choose to drop out of EWU and the pursuit of their dreams.

For the past two challenging years, Fiscal Specialist Judy Miller in EWU’s Student Accounting Department has handled requests for emergency help from 15-20 students each month. Throughout the pandemic, the donor-supported SEF has been there for students who qualify for limited, one-time financial assistance when they are unable to meet immediate, essential expenses because of a temporary emergency.

“I can’t explain how grateful I am for this computer. It will be a complete change for my studies,” a senior majoring in environmental science wrote to Miller after receiving a laptop from SEF.

“I always think about how I can best help students and not say, ‘No’,” Miller said. “People have donated to the Student Emergency Fund for a reason. Students are the reason.”

Your gift today to the Student Emergency Fund will bring joy to students when they need it most.

No-Li Brewhouse made a $10,000 gift to kick off Giving Joy Day and help Eastern launch a Craft Beer Industry Professional Certificate. The 15-credit program will be up and running this fall, with details about course offerings to be released during American Craft Beer Week,  May 16-22. 

John and Cindy Bryant and their team of 84 employees are known for their generous support of the greater Spokane community. The No-Li culture is built upon a shared passion for artisan craft brewing and a commitment to support each other and provide opportunities for others, say the Bryants, who have a strong connection to Eastern.

The entire team is excited to partner on the program, which opens doors for students close to home while supporting workforce needs in the craft beer community they love. “We’re creating a brewing program at Eastern Washington University. How amazing is that?” says John Bryant, who honed his skills over 37 years while working in different cities across the country. 

Chris Cindric, a senior lecturer for the Department of Wellness and Movement Sciences who will oversee the program, says the local craft beer industry is growing and there are now about 64 breweries within a 100-mile radius. 

“It’s a significant opportunity for students in this region because there are so many positions that are available within craft beer,” adds Cindric.

As breweries expand, they look to hire people for human resources, accounting, event planning, production, communications, marketing and other roles. In addition to serving budding craft beer professionals, the program is expected to attract people simply wanting to learn about the “craft” – including enthusiasts who might consider themselves “beer snobs.”

Cindric met the Bryants while connecting for his podcast, Wheat, Wheat, Don’t Tell Me! That led to follow-up conversations and an invitation for John to speak at the Craft Beer Evaluation and Service class that Cindric teaches at Eastern. Additional conversations led to a shared vision for a larger program that expands opportunities for students and breweries alike.

Making the gift to Eastern comes full circle for John, whose parents, Bill and ElWanda Bryant, earned education degrees from EWU in the 1950s. Eastern football recruited Bill out of Mossyrock, a tiny timber town on the coast of Washington, to play for the university. Like many Eastern students, Bill came from a hard-working blue-collar family and was the first in his family to attend college. 

Receiving a football scholarship was transformational for Bill, and also for ElWanda, who joined her childhood sweetheart in Cheney and became the first member of her own family to graduate from college. The couple even married while earning their degrees. 

The success of Bill and ElWanda as educators inspired the future success of their children, says Bryant, and that opened the door to No-Li’s success. And, it all started with a scholarship from Eastern that gave a hard-working kid from Mossyrock a break.

“I think that’s the attraction for me for Eastern – Eastern provides breaks for students who are willing to grind it out.”  

Consider making a gift that supports scholarships and life-changing breaks for students.

Internships are an important and valuable part of the college experience. The real-world experience is often not only crucial to successful degree completion, but also helping a student land that perfect first job.

Steve Blewett, a retired EWU professor and the former director of Eastern’s journalism program, knows all too well the importance of internships. His prestigious career in journalism and public relations started with a newsroom internship and finished with more than 30 years teaching at Eastern. Blewett credits much of his success on his internship at The Spokesman-Review and has championed internship programs both in his professional roles and as a professor.

“My personal experience has convinced me that rich internship opportunities are the final part of the trifecta of learning experiences available to student learners: a solid curriculum managed by talented and enthusiastic faculty, participation in community involvement and professional development while in school, and being mentored by professionals in a rich internship environment,” Blewett says. “Eastern’s graduates can compete for internship positions with those from any college or university in the country.”

As a student at Eastern Washington State College (now Eastern Washington University) in 1969, Blewett was the first Eastern journalism student to be given a full-time paid internship at The Spokesman-Review. He went on to work as a reporter and editor for the Spokesman and later a public relations coordinator for Washington Water Power (now Avista), before he moved to EWU to direct the journalism program in 1988.

Blewett is also well known for spearheading the creation of the Eastern Washington University/Associated Press Election Call Center at Eastern. The center provides paid service-learning opportunities for more than 250 students each General Election year, processing election returns for the Associated Press from as much as one half of the U.S. each year.

While working at Washington Water Power, Blewett created his own internship program by working with faculty at EWU and other higher education institutions. And once he started teaching at Eastern, Blewett became a strong advocate for the enhancements of internship opportunities for journalism and public relations students, securing positions from Spokane to New York City and beyond.

Unfortunately, giving up a paying job or moving to a new city for an internship is not financially viable for many students. Making the situation even more difficult, many journalism and public relations internships are unpaid. For this reason, Blewett has launched the Steve Blewett Student Internship Endowment to ensure more deserving students get paid while they earn real-world, professional experience.

“I hope the creation of this endowment will help continue a record of excellence and encourage many of the organizations and businesses who have benefited from the contributions of Eastern students to support the endowment and continue to provide students with internship opportunities,” Blewett adds.

The Steve Blewett Student Internship Endowment will have to reach full funding of at least $25,000 before students can apply for assistance. Blewett is hoping area businesses that have hosted EWU interns for years and Eastern PR alumni will join him in giving to this fund—which will ensure future students get the experiential learning they need to succeed after graduation.

Longtime Professor Bill Youngs is adding another chapter to Eastern’s history of transforming the lives of students. To kick off Giving Joy Day, on April 4, 2022 Youngs is making a matching gift to challenge the Eastern community to support student scholarships.

For the next few weeks, gifts made to the Bill Youngs Endowment will have twice the impact. Please join with Youngs and our Eagle community by making a matching gift to help Eastern students thrive in the classroom and into the future as working professionals!

This is the second matching challenge Youngs has inspired. This year, the fully endowed fund will provide its inaugural scholarships for the 2022-23 academic year. The scholarship comes online as a record number of students are struggling to balance educational expenses with runaway increases in the cost of housing, groceries, gas and other essentials.

The Bill Youngs Endowment was established in 2020 by Eastern alumni Mike Clawson and Alicia Kinne-Clawson to honor Youngs while assisting students with education-related expenses. The fund helps undergraduate students in history, environmental science and/or interdisciplinary studies with the cost of tuition and projects like research and publishing that advance skills and qualifications. Youngs is naming the first scholarship The Clawson-Youngs Award in honor of the generous couple who started the endowment.

Youngs, a PhD professor, has served the EWU History Department – and the overall Eastern community – for 50 years. Describing his aspirations as both a teacher and a writer, Dr. Youngs once wrote,

“I want to tell the stories of American history as though I were among friends, sitting beside a fire.”

Although his professional accomplishments include authoring five published books and presenting to international audiences, it is his steadfast commitment to students that earned him a lifelong friendship with Mike and Alicia and an officiating gig at their wedding.

The couple, now parents to twin toddlers, met while taking a chemistry class at Eastern. While serving in student government, they connected with Youngs, who, at the time, was serving as president of the faculty senate.

“He is committed to engaging students’ learning and really cares about students in the classroom. But it doesn’t stop at the end of class,” said Mike, during a November 2020 interview for an InsideEWU story that announced the creation of the fund.

 “You hear about the stuff he does for the community and even outside of history. I don’t know that we encountered anyone at Eastern who is more committed to general student success and helping in any way than Bill is,” Mike said.

The recipient of this year’s EWURA Golden Eagle Scholarship is a go-getter.

Tayler Wells, a criminal justice major with a minor in Spanish, is scheduled to graduate on time – with honors – in June. What makes her accomplishment all the more remarkable is that Wells juggles a 40-hour-a-week work schedule in the shipping department at the Boot Barn in Spokane Valley with a full course load, all the while maintaining a GPA that’s above a 3.5.

Coming from a middle-class family, Wells didn’t qualify for federal grant funds and is on her own to pay for most of her college expenses.  Like many Eastern students, the 21-year-old from Goldendale, Washington works hard to avoid incurring too much college debt.

Wells was thrilled to open her email last fall and discover that she was chosen to receive the EWURA scholarship – enough to cover most of her senior year of tuition.

“I was very shocked. I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, they picked me,’” she recalls.

Wells plans to pursue a career in rural policing – following in the footsteps of her father, Randy Wells, a Klickitat County deputy. Although she grew up with a father in uniform, it wasn’t until Wells went for a ride-along during one of her dad’s shifts that her interest in a career in law enforcement took hold.

“When my dad talked to people, he treated them like people and not like they were already criminals,” said Wells, adding,  “I want more people like my dad working out there.”

The Golden Eagle Scholarship scholarship will help Wells graduate without a mountain of debt, which will give her greater flexibility in the job she chooses. Wells is grateful for the support from the EWURA members and says, “I feel very honored!”

When looking at colleges, Jackson Atwood had plenty of reasons to choose Eastern. When you get to know this talented wheelchair basketball player, you will have 30,000 reasons to support EWU Adaptive Athletics.  

Reason #1 – Meet Jackson Atwood: His parents are EWU alumni and his grandfather, Robert, was a professor here. Atwood earned Running Start credits through Eastern – and the university’s Master of Occupational Therapy Program aligns with his goal of working as a pediatric OT. 

Still, Atwood, a gifted parasports athlete, says what ultimately sealed the deal for enrolling at Eastern was the opportunity to play for David Evjen on the EWU Wheelchair Basketball Team. 

“Coach David is an excellent coach. He is well balanced and performance-based,” Atwood says. 

The outgoing freshman, born with a proximal femoral focal deficiency that led to the amputation of his left foot, lives in Pearce Hall and zips around campus on a kick scooter. With a resume that includes solid academics, volunteer experience and a history of winning gold in world parasports track competitions, Atwood is a role model for students of all abilities. 

His accomplishments garnered a prestigious Heisman High School Scholarship, awarded nationally, and Eastern’s own H.D. Morris Memorial Scholarship. The Spokane Valley native is grateful for the financial support and plans to work as a school-based OT helping children with special needs thrive. 

As of today, the 18-year-old maintains a full course load with practices and games, checking out campus events, meeting up with friends at the PUB and helping new teammates get familiar with the campus. 

“I really like the people, and the culture here is pretty nice,” Atwood says. 

Reason #2 – Every dollar you give to EWU Adaptive Athletics is matched: Mike Mumford, ’81 alumnus who serves on the EWU Foundation Board of Directors, has generously challenged Eagle Nation to match his $30,000 gift, making donors’ gifts go twice as far! 

“The main reason I support Eastern’s Adaptive Athletics Program is because my stepson’s daughter was born with spina bifida, and she is an athlete,” says Mumford. 

Mumford describes 6-year-old Rowan as “a little spitfire.” She plays organized basketball and hockey, and she’s in a dance troupe. “She’s competitive and active,” he says. Mumford attributes Rowan’s active lifestyle to her parents’ insistence that she participate fully in life and their commitment to adapt things to make that participation possible.  

Mumford knows that donor support will make adaptive athletics participation possible for more EWU students, like his granddaughter and Atwood. “I want the match to motivate others to give,” Mumford said. “The program needs the money, and it supports mostly local kids in a rare program.” 

“As proud Eastern alumni (’69), we remain committed to helping students, especially through the Kathy (Iverson) Privratsky Scholarship Endowment benefitting students in Communication Sciences and Disorders. By gifting our required minimum IRA distributions, we help others while reducing taxable income. It is a great way to give back to our university.” – Ken and Kathy Privratsky

Using your IRA distributions to support hard-working students could be your best investment. Please contact Courtney Gray: cgray37@ewu.edu or 509.359.6703

“I’ve worked hard and succeeded. Now it’s time to give back to a profession that I love – and to make a difference for future dental hygienists,” says Diane McHenry, longtime Eastern professor who recently gifted $50,000 to Eastern to create an endowed scholarship. McHenry, who helped establish the EWU Department of Dental Hygiene and is now retired, created the scholarship to support single parents who face financial obstacles while pursuing degrees and careers as dental hygienists as the means to a brighter future for their families. The fund helps with tuition and program incidentals, such as laptops, dental instruments, uniforms and board exam testing fees for state certification.