Wes Peterson (1951) and Janis (Olson) Peterson (1953) are Western alumni who met while students at Western Washington College of Education, now WWU.
They settled in Kelso, Washington, where they raised their sons, Ed and David. They worked in the Kelso school district: Wes as a teacher and later Principal, and Janis as a teacher in the primary grades.
As a junior high school principal, Wes oversaw student teachers assigned to his building, and Janis worked with a number of student teachers in her classroom.
Wes & Janis in Downtown Bellingham, 1950
Following their retirements from the Kelso School district, Janis and Wes moved to Seattle, where Janis continued with a job she began in the Kelso area. Over a ten-year period, she supervised students from EWU, CWU, WSU, and WWU who wished to do their student teaching away from the location of their universities. These students were placed in classrooms in Seattle and the surrounding school districts.
Because of their close contact with student teachers over the years, Janis and Wes were aware of some of the difficulties and burdens the internships brought to the lives of many students. Financial burdens were a serious problem for some, such as the cost of transportation to and from the assigned building each school day for one quarter. Relieving these pressures from outside the classroom could allow a student to have a more successful student-teaching experience.
Janis and Wes are very pleased to have the opportunity to be part of a new resource that will offer assistance to students in need of help meeting financial obligations that have fallen to them as part of their student teaching assignment. All donations go directly to supporting WWU student teachers with the most significant financial need to complete their certification.
Janis and Wes Peterson have established this fund and are matching the first $12,000 given! Please make your gift as part of WWU Give Day to join them in directly supporting our student teachers and needed future Washington State educators.
