Scholarship Recipient Spotlight: Camile Orego

For the 2025–2026 academic year, I received the Launching Futures Scholarship and the AAUW SnoKing Scholarship. These scholarships have significantly eased my financial burden, giving me the personal freedom to focus on what matters most to me: my academics and community. With this support, I’ve been able to reduce my hours at my restaurant job and dedicate more time to my studies, planning Girls Explore STEM workshops, building community on campus, and helping more women attend the Society of Women Engineers National Conference. My grades have improved, my stress has gone down, and honestly, I can’t help but take on more projects now that I have the time.

For me, receiving this support is deeply personal because my sense of purpose comes from contributing to others. These scholarships don’t just lift one student, they help me lift others, and that’s what makes them so meaningful.

I’ve served as President of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) since arriving on campus. Through SWE, I organize multiple annual events, including two soldering workshops with over 50 participants each, a Halloween event, and our main event: Evening with Industry—a large-scale networking event that connects over 100 students with professionals and potential employers. I also lead fundraising efforts for the event through CougStarter and coordinate industry partnerships and communications.

Beyond SWE, I co-lead the software workshop for Girls Explore STEM, which this year will focus on agentic AI, a topic I’m excited to introduce to younger students to inspire their interest in software and emerging technology. I also make sure SWE is represented during the event, and many parents approach me with questions ranging from being a woman in engineering to our programs to how SWE supports K–12 students. I’m also an active member of MESA, where I’ve represented students by speaking with professionals and legislators about how MESA impacts our campus. Last year, I even traveled to Olympia to advocate for the program and hope to do so again.

In addition to my technical and outreach efforts, I focus heavily on community building. I organize campus events that ensure women in STEM feel represented and supported. One of my proudest achievements was building a relationship with Helion after meeting their representative at the SWE National Conference, which has since grown into a long-term partnership benefiting both our campus and the company.

I also try to be an approachable advocate for students. I make myself available for panels, class visits, and casual conversations, and students often come to me for résumé feedback, course planning advice, or general guidance. I love being that person others can rely on, someone who helps make the path a little clearer for those coming after me.

Lastly, I organize industry tours, handling outreach, scheduling, transportation, and logistics. This year, I’ve built a supportive team to help with these efforts, allowing me to focus more on strategy and partnership growth.

I wish I could pick one moment, but there isn’t just one. Here at the Everett campus, it’s all about community, and I know that word gets used a lot, but I truly mean it. I love walking on campus and saying hi to everyone, faculty, staff, students, IT leads, and advisors, because I know them all by name. I know my student body government, the other club officers, and the faculty and staff who are genuinely present and involved.
You might find that same sense of connection within a single department at a larger university, but here, it extends across the entire campus. It’s cross-disciplinary and deeply intersectional; our campus brings together students from all backgrounds, ages, and life experiences.

I’m 37 years old, a woman in STEM, and a first-generation college student, yet I’ve never felt out of place here. There are many older students, many first-gen students, and while there aren’t as many women in STEM, that’s made our bonds even stronger. We celebrate each other’s successes, support each other through challenges, and genuinely want to see everyone cross the finish line.

It’s not about competition here, it’s about community. I can’t point to a single moment that made me proud to be a Coug, because there have been too many. They’ve all built on one another to create what makes this campus, and WSU, truly special.

I don’t think I have it in me to keep my head down and just get a job done. I’ll always strive to make the crimson and gray proud by being true to who I am: a leader, an advocate, and someone who perseveres. I hope to continue embodying empathetic leadership by understanding that people are complex, with different experiences, strengths, and needs. I want to help others feel supported and ensure they have access to opportunities that let them thrive.

I also hope to be in a position where I can stay connected to WSU, whether that’s as an industry professional, a donor, or by building partnerships that create networking and career opportunities for future students.
I know I’ll sometimes fall short, but I’ll always keep moving forward with grit, compassion, and determination.

It’s hard to say exactly what my goals are after graduation because I don’t yet know where I’ll end up, but I can say that WSU has done an incredible job supporting me as I figure that out. No matter where I go, my goal is to use my strengths to create the best opportunities for myself and for others.

I’ve been told many times that the path you end up on might not be the one you expect, and as a woman in STEM, that path is often non-linear. But WSU has prepared me to approach those opportunities with clarity and confidence. I’ve had countless chances to connect with professionals in my field, from networking events and career fairs to faculty introductions and industry partnerships. Faculty and staff have gone out of their way to help me, even something as simple as asking to see my résumé without my offering it.

Whether it’s through a SWE conference, a professional connection, or a classmate-turned-colleague, I know that wherever I land after graduation, WSU will have played a key role in getting me there.

I would want them to know that they’ve given a student something far more valuable than money. As I mentioned above, they’ve given me a precious resource that engineering students rarely have: time. With this time, I’ve been able to give back to my community, strengthen my leadership skills, discover new passions, and grow beyond what I thought was possible, even as a 37-year-old adult who thought she already knew who she was.

Because of this support, I’ve been able to look for internships, plan new campus and SWE events, and devote more energy to building community. The financial assistance you’ve given one student has also supported countless others, from the women who can now attend the SWE conference because I had time to write proposals and advocate, to the students who benefit from the events I now have time to organize.

You’ve also given me the ability to focus more deeply on my studies. I’m doing better this semester than I have in a long time. I can finally attend full-time, feel less financial stress, and even take a weekend off work to earn an A on an assignment instead of settling for a B.

Your support hasn’t just changed my experience. It’s shaped the experiences of so many others. For that, I am endlessly grateful.

We recently had a visit from several industry professionals at SAP Concur, all proud Cougs, and it was the first time I truly saw what people mean when they say, “Cougs take care of Cougs.” Being on the Everett campus sometimes feels a little removed from Pullman’s school spirit, but that day I really felt the pride and connection that comes with being part of this community.

One of the visitors mentioned how “Go Cougs!” is something you say to strangers, no matter where you are, and it’s true. I’ve had strangers stop me and my friends on the light rail to SeaTac for a trip to Pullman just to say it. There’s something incredibly special about that kind of shared connection.

Over my last two years here, I’ve found myself loving that spirit more and more. Maybe that’s how you know you’re a Coug: when you not only see and feel the connection, but when you know you want to carry it with you long after your days on campus are done.