Two WKU students, Katie King and Veronica Pierre have been awarded the Connie Foster Student Scholarship for the 2022-23 academic year. 

Katie King is in her second year of the Nursing program at WKU.  King became interested in a Nursing career when she became a caregiver for her mother.  “I felt incredibly ignorant about her disease and had no idea how I was supposed to make health decisions for her.  I took an Anatomy & Physiology class to empower and educate myself.” Finding the class incredibly interesting and doing very well in it gave King the confidence and determination that she had what it takes to be a nurse.  After earning her Nursing degree and enough experience, King would like to work as a travel nurse.  Someday, King said, she would like to become a nurse educator or even a medical librarian. "Specialty studies like Nursing have a lot of additional fees and equipment that need to be purchased, and The Connie Foster Student Scholarship will ease that additional financial burden," said King.  "Being awarded The Connie Foster Scholarship means so much to me.  It makes me feel that my academic achievements aren’t going unnoticed.”

Veronica Pierre is working on her degrees in Applied Mathematics and Psychological Sciences and is a senior this fall.  After graduation in the spring, she plans to pursue a two to three yearlong internship with the Christian campus ministry Reformed University Fellowship, then apply to graduate programs to become a certified mental health counselor.  She has worked at WKU Libraries for roughly three-and-a-half years, first as a student security patroller, then briefly as a student circulation assistant, and currently as the Interlibrary Loan student assistant. "My education is a means to an end, a tool that allows me to build genuine relationships with people which I would not be able to build otherwise, and those relationships will always be worth more than my degrees," said Pierre. "Being awarded the Connie Foster scholarship serves as a reminder to me that I am personally accountable to those who support the work I do to further my education; I often get lost in the monotony of studying and meeting deadlines throughout each semester and forget that my efforts count for more than the letter grades I receive." 

“We are pleased to offer student scholarships to our library assistants each year,” said Susann de Vries, Dean of WKU Libraries.  “Through the generous support of our donors, this endowment contributes to student success.” 

For more information on the Connie Foster Student Scholarship Endowment, go to https://www.wku.edu/chf/conniefoster/index.php