The state’s Workforce Board is seeking evaluators for our annual Washington Award for Vocational Excellence (WAVE) scholarship. This valuable, two-year scholarship celebrates high-performing Career and Technical Education (CTE) students–both graduating high school seniors and students in professional-technical programs in our state’s community and technical colleges. 

Who we are seeking 
We’re looking for evaluators who represent education, labor, business, community organizations, and government. Evaluators may serve if they do not know of, nor have vested interest in, the results of any WAVE applicant’s application and award outcome.

What’s in it for you 
Read personal stories about the rewarding impacts that come from hands-on, career-focused learning and how CTE is making a difference at the high school and college level for students across Washington. 

What to expect as a WAVE Evaluator: 

• Volunteer evaluators will receive electronic WAVE review packets by email starting the fourth week of March through the third week of April.
• Gmail and Outlook accounts often redirect attachments to a junk mail or spam folder, so please check your junk/spam folder between March 25 and April 19.
• Reviewers are assigned about 10 packets, with each packet containing three essays, two letters of recommendation, and a scoring rubric.
• The scoring rubric is an electronic fillable form that allows both scoring and written commentary.
• Step-by-step WAVE review instructions and a training video link, will be included.
• Reviews typically take between one to three hours to complete all 10 packets, and reviewers have at least two weeks before all scored packets need to be returned.
• Once a reviewer has scored each of their assigned packets, the scored and saved rubrics/packets are returned by email to the Workforce Board at WAVE@wtb.wa.gov.

More about WAVE 
Created by the Legislature in 1984 to emphasize the importance of career and technical education, and the value of real-world, hands-on learning, the award was restarted in 2022 after being suspended for more than a decade following the Great Recession. The award is designed to celebrate the top three CTE students from each of the state’s 49 legislative districts, with up 147 total students receiving an award.   

The award covers up to two years of tuition, with the amount of the tuition based on the tuition charged by the institution students will be attending—with awards up to $5,500 per year, and a maximum of up to $11,000 for two years. The application deadline was March 19. More: https://wtb.wa.gov/wave/.

The anticipated timeline for the review process is as follows:

• March 19, 2024 – The student WAVE application period concluded.
• Late March through late April – The Workforce Board readies and distributes WAVE applications into packets for volunteer evaluators. 
• Evaluators will have approximately two weeks to evaluate 10-12 applications using a rubric as in previous years. The review process can take between 1-3 hours total to complete all packets.

Each application will be evaluated by more than one reviewer and a composite score will determine awardees by the Legislative District from which applicants applied. Applicants will be notified of their award status between late April and early May.  

If you would like to volunteer, or want to return as a WAVE reviewer, or know others who are interested, please contact Colleen Seto at colleen.seto@wtb.wa.gov.

Thank you!