14 women awarded Service League scholarships

The Highland Lakes Service League announced its 2023 women’s scholarship winners on June 19. Awards to the 14 women totaled $42,500. 

Each year, the nonprofit organization gives money to women in Burnet and Llano counties who are returning to college or pursuing training or certification programs.

Funding is raised through the Service League’s annual Chuck Wagon Chow Down in January.

This year’s winners (in the order they are pictured) are:

Katelyn Juarez

Juarez is working toward a Bachelor of Science in transformation Christian education at Harwell University. She is a wife, mother, and dedicated Christian and works for the Burnet Consolidated Independent School District in the special education department. Her goal is to help the next generation succeed and become productive and healthy members of society. She wants to become a resource teacher or a special needs teacher.

Payton Powers

Powers is studying diagnostic radiology at Austin Community College. She was in the top 15 percent of her graduating high school class as well as in the National Honor Society. After high school, she worked toward a CMA and was top in her class. Today, she works two jobs and encourages everyone to take time for mental health. Powers is doing her clinical at Seton Highland Lakes and is passionate to learn everything there is to know about radiology.

Valerie Goodman

Goodman is studying pre-nursing at Western Governors University and is employed at Baylor Scott & White-Marble Falls. She is a dedicated mother to an active son and daughter. She took care of her father in 2022 and was inspired by the hospice workers. Now that both children are in school, she is staring nursing school.

Emily Blue

Blue is working toward a master’s degree in education and development with a concentration in Professional School Counseling at Lamar University and has been teaching for five years at Marble Falls ISD. In that role, she has developed a strong sense that students need more than just teachers; they need unbiased nonjudgmental support and guidance for their well-being. She hopes to become a high school counselor, where she can emphasize the importance of social-emotional learning in both students and teachers.

Alyssa Moon

Moon is studying for a Master of Science in clinical mental health counseling at Grand Canyon University while working at Harmony School of Creative Arts in Marble Falls as a voice teacher. She is gifted in performing arts and understands the pressures and challenges that brings. She is passionate about providing mental health counseling services.

Jennifer Hall

Hall is working on a master’s degree in human resource management at Colorado State University and works as a human resource specialist for Marble Falls ISD. She has a passion for employee retention and workplace culture. She wants to become a human resource director. She is a proud mother of four children.

Jessica Berry

Berry is working on a Master of Educational Administration at Lamar University. She has been an educator for 15 years and teaches in the gifted and talented program. One of her responsibilities has been to serve as the robotics/academic coach. 

Mickie Brown

Brown is working on a Master of Special Education with Diagnostician Certification at the University of Texas at Tyler. She is currently a special education teacher at Highland Lakes Elementary School in Granite Shoals. She is a single mother raising four children. 

Alicia Macias

Macias is studying for a business management degree from Collin College while working at Baylor Scott & White as a certified clinical medical assistant. She has strong leadership skills and is excited about the new opportunities that will come with the completion of her bachelor’s degree.

Taylor Clark

Clark is working on a medical laboratory technology degree at Lone Star Community College and Del Mar Community College and is employed at Baylor Scott & White as a certified lab technician III. She is a wife as well as a mother of a 4-year-old boy and 3-year-old twin girls. She is a native of Marble Falls and loves how the community has been there to support her and her family.

Mariela Suarez

Suarez is pursuing an accounting degree from Texas State University. She is the oldest of four siblings, the first in her family to graduate high school, and the first to attend college. She comes from an immigrant family with her parents sacrificing everything to give their children greater opportunities. Suarez was a Career and Community Leader of America in high school, a volunteer at Central Texas College in Marble Falls, and volunteered in the school library.

Deidre Henderson

(not pictured)

Henderson is working on a master’s degree in counseling at the University of Texas at Tyler to become a school counselor and has been in the classroom for 18 years. She is excited to graduate college at the same time her daughter graduates high school. 

Victoria Mosca

(not pictured)

Mosca is working on a Feline and Canine Grooming Degree and License. She faced education hurdles during the COVID-19 pandemic but has since challenged herself to get a license in grooming and own and operate her own business.

Ayssa Ozuna

(not pictured)

Ozuna is working on a teaching certificate through iTeach and hopes to someday pursue a master’s degree in education. She is a seventh-grade English language arts teacher at Marble Falls Middle School. She wants to impact students’ lives in and out of the classroom.

editor@thepicayune.com