My name is Katelan LoCascio, I will continue my academic studies this fall at the University of Wyoming. I will graduate in 2024 with two majors in business management and entrepreneurship as well as a minor in sales. I have been very blessed throughout my life, although challenges have never been easy. I am an only child of a single mother, who is on Social Security Disability due to a critical accident that left her with lifelong ailments. This has been an issue-bearing situation in our life. I remember times, I wanted things that my friends had, but I knew that I could not have it based on my mother’s financial income and not receiving child support did not help our situation. I knew that this would eventually affect me and my educational goals. I knew that I would have to work extra hard to earn the scholarships and achieve the goals I have always wanted to achieve. Volleyball was always a huge passion in my life, and I was determined to play at the collegiate level. With our unique financial situation, I was not able to play for a traveling team which minimized my chances of being seen by college coaches. Although, this did not discourage my goal. I was offered to play collegiate volleyball at Central Wyoming College while pursuing a business and communications associate degree. I am so grateful for the people and experiences I gained at Central Wyoming College and I am glad that I get to continue my education in Wyoming.
As a young person, I was always very eager to earn money and find jobs around my neighborhood such as babysitting, dog walking, and house sitting. Making money and helping others have always been important to me. At the age of 16, I started working as a server at Red Rocks Country Club. This position provided me with a lot of experience in customer service and proper service etiquette in the business. After working at the Country Club, I earned a serving position at Longhorn Steakhouse. I have enjoyed the connections and opportunities that have come with working there. They allow me to come back and work on my winter, spring, and summer breaks when I am back home in Colorado. While pursuing my studies in Laramie, I maintain a job at Chili’s working four days a week. I enjoy having the ability to connect and serve others.
Giving back to my community holds a significant place in my heart, especially being a former student at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colorado. I have worked with the challenge program throughout my high school years; it became a place of comfort and individuality. I transferred my love for people with disabilities when working on my Big Idea Project in Business Leadership class. The main point of the project was to bring forth a problem in our society and fix it. Well, I found a need to help people with any sort of disability search for employment. To make this happen my group and I hosted a job fair that was specifically for disabled people. Our project was extraordinarily successful which provided two participants with jobs in the local area. I plan to continue my love for the community this August in Laramie. I will be volunteering with the Big Brothers and Big Sisters Program, being a mentor for a young child. I am looking forward to being a part of such an amazing and impactful program.
I would like to thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Katelan LoCascio
My name is Evan Heck and I am a Laramie native in my sophomore year at the University of Wyoming. I am a full time in-person student in 5 classes this semester. I am a member of the University of Wyoming Hockey Team and am President of the team as well. I am doing duel majors with accounting and finance. I have had Internships in both accounting and finance and tend to lean more towards the finance side.
I have faced quite a few challenges as a student at UW. I came in as an non-traditional student and was forced to participate in Saddle Up. I went to my initial advising meeting and told them I could not come to Saddle up due to me working full time to pay for the roof over my head and the food on my plate. They told me that wasn't a good enough reason to miss and I needed to "re-evaluate my priorities". Due to this I started college with an F on my transcript due to Saddle up. I now am a second semester sophomore and have passed every class I have taken while working 40+ hours a week. Luckily I was able to have Saddle Up removed from my transcript this winter break due to some policy changes in the University.
Another challenge I have faced as a student at UW is loading to much onto my plate. Being a full-time student, full-time employee, and an Athlete is a lot to have on my plate. In some scenarios this has effected my grades, work output, or athletic performance. Managing my schedule has taught me a lot of good scheduling skills and gave me an ability to manage my workload a lot better than my peers.
In my work experience I have been blessed to experience a traditional office setting and a more entrepreneurial space. I had an accounting internship with a company called ATBS in the UniWyo building. ATBS does taxes for 1099 truckers and therefore I had to deal with a lot of pretty abusive clients. I gained a lot of experience over my 8 month internship and at the end was offered a full time position that I ended up turning down. I then pursued a College Financial Representative Internship with Northwestern Mutual but ended up leaving because I couldn't make ends meet. I am now a Financial Specialist at State Farm and am super excited about the opportunity.
As I previously mentioned I am a hockey player and do most of my volunteering and activism through that. I volunteer as the coach of the U19 girls youth team. I coach girls from age 8 to 19 all at once. I have found the huge age gap challenging to navigate but it is something I am super passionate about. My position as UW Hockey President has given me a voice when it comes to the funds for the rink. I have spent a lot of time advocating to city council for more money to the rink as well.
I believe this scholarship will help me navigate my busy schedule by taking some financial stress off my shoulders. I appreciate your time and hope you will consider me for you scholarship. I also appreciate the precedent this scholarship sets for other businesses and one day hope to replicate it.
