The reason I am passionate about pursuing an automotive trade is because I like to be useful and to be able to be an independent woman when it comes to something that is generally such a male-dominated field. I am currently attending WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming for a 9-month program to pursue my goal of becoming a mechanic and to learn from people who have had years of experience working at dealerships and professional shop settings. My upbringing has affected my choice in education and decision for what I want to do for the rest of my life for as long as I can remember my dad was always doing basic maintenance on our vehicles and I would be right there next to him helping him and learning about what seems simple now like how to replace disc brakes, changing oil, air filters and overall how far basic maintenance can keep your vehicle running longer but still didn't fully understand it. Throughout my first few years of high school I never quite knew what I wanted to do but as I hit those upper-classmen years of high school and started getting things like my license and I learned basic maintenance from my father, grandpa, and uncle and that’s when I realized that I liked taking apart and putting things back together to make them work properly. Because of this newfound passion, I took Intro to Auto Mechanics at my school and learned the basics of cars and how to maintain them to keep them running. From there on my passion only grew more! I started wanting to learn more about cars and how they operate, how to diagnose what’s wrong with them, and overall being able to be independent and try to fix my problems. After Intro to Auto Mechanics, I started taking the Advanced Auto Mechanics course at my school where I found out this is what I enjoy doing and want to make a career out of it. Through my Automotive class in high school, I found out about a school called WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming where I have committed to in the pursuit of learning and advancing my knowledge on how to repair cars. WyoTech is a very intense school with nine-and-a-half hour days starting at 7 A.M. and ending at 4:20 PM. These nine-hour days will be tough but I’m really excited to be in the shop for that long each day getting the hands-on experience I need to learn what I need to be career-ready right after graduation.

My name is Devyn Stemen, I am 18 years old and the reason I am passionate about pursuing an automotive trade is because I like to be useful and to be able to be an independent woman when it comes to something that is generally such a male-dominated field. I am currently attending WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming for a 9-month program 15 hours away from home to pursue my goal of becoming a mechanic and to learn from people who have had years of experience working at dealerships and professional shop settings. My upbringing has really affected my choice in education and decision for what I want to do for the rest of my life for as long as I can remember I was going to Silverwood Theme Park every fall for the annual car show with my grandparents and just remember walking around admiring all these cars and knowing that I also wanted to have these vehicles that I would have put so much work into that I was proud and happy to be showing it off. Something that impacted who I am today was my dad making me help him when I was a kid with basic maintenance on our cars and my parents making me financially responsible for repairs and preventative maintenance on my car that got me intrigued in the idea of me being able to fix something and being able to watch myself progress and learn. I would appreciate this money to help with loans.

I'm applying for this scholarship because I need as much financial assistance I can be awarded so my mom is not paying for my education through the parent plus loan. I want to become a mechanic so I have the knowledge to understand and fix mine and others' vehicles. I plan to make an impact on the future by volunteering at my high school shop class to help students learn about vehicles and the basic maintenance of those vehicles. I also would like to get my student loan amounts as low as possible so that when I can go into the workforce I can afford to modify and help my parents and family keep their vehicles in tip-top shape while being able to afford to make my 1999 Chevy Tracker everything I want it to become. I also one day want to buy my mom a Tracker and make sure it is a good running vehicle and reliable for her because she's given so much for me to be where I am today and because my Tracker was the daily driver when I was growing up. If it becomes a reality for me in the future I would like to set up something where people in need who are going through hard times can get basic maintenance done on their vehicles so they can get from point A to point B without having to worry about their car breaking down and spending more money they might not have to spend. I never really wanted to go to a 4-year program or even a 2-year program but once I learned about cars and started fixing them I learned about the world of trades and was really intrigued and liked the idea of always being able to have a job open to me and being able to fix my things making me more independent. I also believe while this is a spendy hobby it is a very rewarding one being able to constantly learn as we advance in technology and improve our existing technology and being able to see my progress of what I'm working on and how it started bad and is becoming a better situation because of me. I would really appreciate this money and put it to good use to help my mom pay off the loans she has taken out just so I can learn more about cars.

My name is Devyn Stemen, I am 18 years old and the reason I am passionate about pursuing an automotive trade is because I like to be useful and to be able to be an independent woman when it comes to something that is generally such a male-dominated field. I am currently attending WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming for a 9-month program 15 hours away from home to pursue my goal of becoming a mechanic and to learn from people who have had years of experience working at dealerships and professional shop settings. My upbringing has really affected my choice in education and decision for what I want to do for the rest of my life for as long as I can remember I was going to Silverwood Theme Park every fall for the annual car show with my grandparents and just remember walking around admiring all these cars and knowing that I also wanted to have these vehicles that I would have put so much work into that I was proud and happy to be showing it off. I didn't really begin to understand or pursue cars until I got my own car a 1999 Chevy Tracker 2.0 two-door that was originally my mom's when I was growing up having that emotional attachment to that vehicle I have all these plans to make it what I want it to be by putting an aluminum bumpers and light pods with a winch on it, a hardtop eventually and a bunch of other things but something that impacted who I am today was my dad making me help him when I was a kid with basic maintenance on our cars and my parents making me financially responsible for repairs and preventative maintenance on my car that got me intrigued in the idea of me being able to fix something and being able to watch myself progress and learn. One of the things I'm excited to learn about is my specialty program at WyoTech, HPPT (high-performance power trains), and being able to learn how to tear down an engine and completely rebuild it and make it a better a stronger engine and being able to put turbos on vehicles and being able to learn about turbos and superchargers where I wouldn't have been able to learn these things at any other school I was accepted to or thinking about committing too but this school in turn costs more money which is why im here applying for your scholarship today to be able to afford upgrades for my car and not worry about paying as much in student loans.

My name is Devyn, I am 18-year-old woman from Newport, Washington, and attending WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming fifteen hours away from home for a 9-month program for automotive. For me, I have always known that I wanted a job that wasn't the same thing every single day and couldn't be an office job for I can't sit still and have to be doing something. I was always outside helping my dad with basic maintenance on our vehicles and never really understood until I got my first car which was a 1999 Chevy Tracker 2 liter with 2 doors and a soft top nicknamed Tracy. Tracy needed some work done before she was operating to my needs. Helping my dad fix something that was mine and being able to see how I could fix something and see progress really appealed to me and in the next year of high school, I opted to take an automotive class learning the basics of how to take care of my car and prolonging the life of it just by doing simple things such as oil changes. From there my interest only grew larger and I wanted to know more and more about cars and how to be independent and always have a reliable vehicle. I took an advanced auto class and got to work on some more advanced projects in the shop from tearing down an engine and changing head gaskets and valve gaskets to changing o2 sensors doing all these things just made me want to learn more about these everyday appliances and learn how to fix and do preventative maintenance. In 5 years I hope to have a good job at a honest shop that is a reliable job and being able to make Tracy not my daily driver so I can really take the time to make it the car I hope for it to be all while fixing up cars for people who don't know about their vehicles and be able to help them with my knowledge.

My name is Devyn, I am 18-year-old woman from Newport, Washington, and attending WyoTech in Laramie, Wyoming fifteen hours away from home for a 9-month program for automotive. For me, I have always known that I wanted a job that wasn't the same thing every single day and couldn't be an office job for I can't sit still and have to be doing something. I was always outside helping my dad with basic maintenance on our vehicles and never really understood until I got my first car which was a 1999 Chevy Tracker 2 liter with 2 doors and a soft top nicknamed Tracy. Tracy needed some work done before she was operating to my needs. Helping my dad fix something that was mine and being able to see how I could fix something and see progress really appealed to me and in the next year of high school, I opted to take an automotive class learning the basics of how to take care of my car and prolonging the life of it just by doing simple things such as oil changes. From there my interest only grew larger and I wanted to know more and more about cars and how to be independent and always have a reliable vehicle. I took an advanced auto class and got to work on some more advanced projects in the shop from tearing down an engine and changing head gaskets and valve gaskets to changing o2 sensors doing all these things just made me want to learn more about these everyday appliances and learn how to fix and do preventative maintenance.