Award supports vocational education among Snohomish and Island county students

EVERETT -- He is the youngest of five brothers to enroll at the Sno-Isle Tech Skills Center to learn a trade while in high school.

Yet Taylor West will postpone his leap into the job market.

He is one of 17 students from Snohomish and Island counties to win a Washington Award for Vocational Excellence to continue his studies next fall.

The WAVE scholarship, which began in 1984, recognizes students who excel in career and technical education.

And that's just what West, 18, has done in two years of robotics classes at the skills center, said Karen Coulombe, his robotics and electronics technology instructor.

"By the time you get to the second year, you have to work hard and he certainly does," she said. "We don't spoon-feed them anymore. They are mainly on their own. They are going to have to figure out how to find the right information and what to do when they get it."

Coulombe has had at least one WAVE winner every year for the past six years.

At times, it has been a hectic senior year for West. During winter quarter, he would attend class at Sno-Isle in the morning, take afternoon classes at Monroe High School, lead his school's robotics team as it prepared for a regional competition after school and go to Edmonds Community College for an evening class. He even had to fit in track practice toward the end of that gruelling quarter.

Still, it was worth it, he said. West likes the challenge and the idea of working with his hands for a living.

Two of his brothers went into welding and two others are in construction-related fields.

Taylor followed his own path.

"Welding and construction are a hard trade once you get older," he said. "Electronics isn't as back-­intensive."

West, who also won a $2,600 state Elks Club vocational scholarship, plans to study electronics at Edmonds Community College next fall. Ideally, he would combine it with his other favorite subject, horticulture, which he takes at Monroe High School.

"I just like working with my hands a lot," he said. "I'm hoping to combine electronics with horticulture. I really want to get into alternative energy," such as harnessing wind.

West will see a familiar face at EdCC next fall. ­Second-year Sno-Isle robotics student Kathryn Stephens, 18, also won a WAVE scholarship and hopes to eventually transfer to the University of Washington.

Stephens, a Running Start student at EdCC, said she was reticent about taking the class when she first enrolled at Sno-Isle, but soon discovered she had the aptitude and could handle the math.

"I always thought of robotics and electronics as being stuff for geniuses," she said. "I'm really glad I did this. I had no idea I would enjoy it this much."

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446, stevick@heraldnet.com.