Hometown: Germantown, WI
Major: Chemical Engineering
University: University of Wisconsin-Madison
Our STEM scholarship winner, Josie Coulthurst can pinpoint the exact moment when she was first exposed to STEM in school. It was her engineering class in the sixth grade! She will never forget that first day when she walked into a classroom decorated with things she had never seen before and that every other student in the class was a boy. After class that day, she was not sure if she wanted to come back again. However, she did return and learned to participate in the design challenges and projects. At first, many of the boys excluded her, but as time went by she started beating them in every challenge and soon they all wanted her on their team!
FunFun Fact: Josie was born on a Friday the 13th, which her parents now consider their lucky day!
During high school, Josie had many wonderful academic milestones including joining her school’s DECA chapter (business marketing club) for the first time this past school year. Despite the fact she had never taken a business class before, Josie placed first at the district DECA competition, finished in the top three at the state DECA competition and was named an international finalist at the DECA International Career Development Conference in Orlando. In addition to that, Josie was also the Valedictorian of her graduating class!
Josie says her greatest inspiration is nature! Everything she does and everything she hope to do is for the protection of our beautiful planet. She hopes to one day research alternative fuels and wants the next generation to have the chance to love this planet as much as she does.
