May 2, 2008
South Puget Sound Community College student named Northwest Career Educators and Employers Association Student of the Year
Bethany Diehl, a South Puget Sound Community College student who is on track to complete her Associate of Science degree this summer, has been named Student of the Year by the Northwest Career Educators and Employers Association (NCEEA). The award carries an $800 scholarship.
Diehl’s areas of study include biology and chemistry, and she hopes to become a marine biologist. She enrolled at South Puget Sound in 2005, and in the fall of 2007, she work through the college’s Cooperative Work Experience (Co-op) Program to secure an internship with Cascadia Research, an Olympia, Wash.,-based nonprofit research organization that primarily conducts research to manage and protect threatened marine mammals.
Based on Diehl’s work in the internship, Co-op Program Coordinator Sally Murrow suggested that she apply for the NCEEA award, which is given to one student from a two-year college and one from a four-year college or university each year. Winners are selected based on their academic achievement through their career-related experiences and the quality of their applications.
“I was not expecting to get it,” Diehl said. “I thought it was supposed to be announced earlier in March, and I didn’t hear anything until the end of March or early April, so I just thought I didn’t get it. It’s a good feeling to be selected as Student of the Year.”
After completing her coursework at South Puget Sound, Diehl plans to enter the University of Washington’s Marine Biology Program.