WVC student named to 2016 All-Washington Academic Team

Media Contact: Libby Siebens, community relations executive director, 509.682.6436 (Mon.-Thurs.)

March 24, 2016

Wenatchee Valley College student Kimberly Elliott was named to the All-Washington Academic Team and recognized at a ceremony in Olympia. The program recognizes and honors students who reflect the diversity of the state, maintain high standards of excellence and contribute positively to the community.

Elliott will graduate with an associate of arts and sciences transfer degree this spring. She hopes to transfer to the University of Alberta and enroll in the history program. She plans to earn a master’s degree in history and then “teach it as well as it was taught to me,” she said. She is particularly interested in helping the displaced First Nations people in Canada regain their culture and exploring the loss of Native American groups due to expansion.

Elliott said that her love of history began in classes taught by WVC History professor Dustin Clark. “His teaching addresses the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of social issues,” she said. She continued on into anthropology courses taught by Dr. Alex Taub and additional history courses taught by Jaime Ramirez.

Elliott became interested in teaching when she began helping another student learn material outside of a history class. “I realized I was learning the material more, and I was good at inspiring other people to feel how I felt, and helping people to understand. That was a very important turning point for me,” she said.

She will also graduate with her Wenatchee High School diploma in June.

The program is sponsored by the Washington Association of Community and Technical Colleges, the Trustees Association of Community and Technical Colleges, the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges and Phi Theta Kappa. Scholarship sponsors include KeyBank of Washington, Washington State Employees Credit Union and the Trustees Association of Community and Technical Colleges.