Some kind words kept this Tri-Cities leader in college. Now she’s honored as ‘an inspiration’

A Columbia Basin College advisor’s encouraging words helped set the course of Michelle Whitney’s life.

Then a recent high school graduate in her first year of community college, Whitney didn’t have a career plan. She was attending classes she didn’t like and considering not returning.

“Donna Brouns looked at me and said, ‘Michelle you will be successful in whatever it is that you choose to do.’ I believed her and that changed the trajectory of my life,” Whitney said told the Herald.

Whitney went on to become superintendent of the Pasco School District, the largest district in the region. And on Thursday, she was named Columbia Basin College’s Alumni of the Year during the college foundation’s annual Power of Connection fundraiser.

The honor is given annually based on a person’s support to the college, community or a humanitarian cause or to someone who triumphed over adversity.

“We’ve all been thrilled to hear Michelle share her crystal-clear memory of how an encounter with a CBC adviser became a life-changing moment,” said Jay Frank, the college’s assistant vice president of communications and external relations.

“Michelle’s commitment to her own education has spilled over into a career dedicated to changing the lives of students in Pasco. She’s an inspiration.”

Whitney, a Pasco native, was a first-generation college student, and while she understood how to navigate the system, she didn’t have any plan for what she was going to do.

Being told she would be successful gave her confidence and helped propel her to earn her associate’s degree and go on to Washington State University Pullman. After graduation, she returned to teach in Pasco.

“(Brouns) helped me develop a path that ultimately led to the job that I get to do now,” Whitney said. “Had Donna not said that to me I would have left CBC. ... It was the encouragement and inspiration that I needed in the moment to be able to go back the next day. She was the first of many people who really inspired me to continue.”

Next generation

Getting named the Columbia Basin College Alumni of the Year is an honor, Whitney said, but it’s one that she wants to use as a way to inspire others.

“I tell other leaders that leadership is about having sunshine on other people’s faces, not on your own face,” she said. “It’s an institution I’ve loved my entire life giving me an award.”

She can show students that people can find success going to community college.

Often the people get told that they need to leave home to get an education, but that isn’t true, she said. Her story shows people that they can stay close to home and get a tremendous education.

The school district has been working to help students bridge that gap and see themselves in college after high school. That includes programs like college in the high school and Running Start.

It also includes putting New Horizons High School on the Columbia Basin College campus. The school district partnered with the college to convert the W building for New Horizons in 2017.

Having the high school there allows students see themselves attending college.

“We’ve been really intentional with our program decisions,” she said. “We want every student to have a belief in themselves.”

She said she tells her story to anyone who will listen, and feels that it’s her responsibility to share it.

“I hope that it inspires a student that otherwise wouldn’t have gone,” she said.