“My future is not intimidating because I am not being sent out under-equipped. I have been trained during my time at Whitworth University to honor God, follow Christ, and serve humanity – and with God’s help, I am ready,” her essay declares. At Whitworth, in Spokane, Wash., Skattebo maintained a 3.94 GPS and won the Communications Department Service Leadership Award. She also was one of two graduating seniors to speak in the commencement exercises.
While at college, Skattebo served as junior high youth director for the Millwood Church in Spokane. She volunteered at Hospice of Spokane and led grief support groups for children at the McClean Fletcher Center. The daughter of mission co-workers, she spent her first eight years in the Philippines and the next ten years in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Upon her graduation, Skattebo is moving to Houston where she will teach kindergarten for two years in the Teach for America Program. After that she intends to pursue a Masters degree in social work. Then she will work as a children’s counselor. “My dream for a long time in my life,” she told the Outlook, “has been to do grief counseling for kids who have lost loved ones.”
The award brings a $1,000 prize.
Jessica Hawkinson, a graduating senior from Macalester College in St. Paul, Minn., has been awarded second place by the Outlook for her essay. She maintained a 3.76 GPA en route to a degree in international studies and political science. While at the college she served as a student discussion leader in Macalester Protestants and as a volunteer for PRIME-ECR (Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees).
Hawkinson just accepted appointment to be the 2008-09 Seminar Coordinator at the Presbyterian Church United Nations Office in New York City. She will design and execute programming to educate Presbyterian Church members, seminary students, and larger communities about issues on the United Nations agenda and the PC(USA)’s role at the U.N. After her one-year term there, she hopes to enroll in graduate school in international affairs or political science in preparation for a career in diplomacy and conflict resolution.
Both essays will be published in the higher education edition of The Presbyterian Outlook, coming in September.
Outlook names winners of college partnership award
Katherine Joy “Katie” Skattebo is the 2008 winner of The Presbyterian Outlook Church-College Partnership Award. Initiated in 2007, the award is given to a graduating senior from a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)-related college who has written the winning essay on the subject, “How my education at a PC(USA)-related college has prepared me for significant service and leadership.”
