Danna Culhane

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“Through my work experience, I found that my passion was in business. I loved the interaction it provoked between people and how it combined quantitative thinking with creativity in order to solve problems. It wasn’t until one of my friends started a solar company that I considered applying my passion to an untraditional field such as renewable energy.”

  • Program: 2011 Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship Recipient
  • Resides: Seattle, WA
  • Hometown: Crystal, MN
  • Age: 26

Biography

Profile: The business world and preserving the environment are two of Danna Culhane’s loves ...and they’ve intersected for her at just the right time.  Born in South Korea and raised in Minnesota, Danna now calls Seattle home.  She graduated from a Seattle area community college with a near perfect GPA and will be enrolling in the business school at nearby University of Washington.  Her goal is to someday run a company or at least be the international liaison for companies that build and install solar panels.  But her success in community college wasn’t a sure thing ...not because of failing grades, far from it as she was in the top 1% of her class ...but because of a lack of financial resources.  Even though she worked a server position, there just wasn’t enough saved for tuition.   Fortunately the Foundation Scholarship Office at the college recognized her potential and took care of the academic bills.  For this Danna will always be grateful.  “The awareness that someone was giving me a chance to live my dream stayed with me at all times. I felt that the best way to pay them back was to earn the right to go to bed at night and every day I attempted to be the hardest working college student on my campus. I also took up a variety of service positions and started a business club on campus so that the money of my donors could be reinvested into other students.”

Inspiration:  Danna credits her success in school to one of her close mentors, a woman named Carrie Doerr who “provided me a home that was safe, introduced me to the importance of an education, and was instrumental in helping me to see life beyond my narrow viewpoint at that time.” 

Aspiration:  Following undergraduate studies, Danna is looking at the possibility of law school.  But her goal is to work in the financing of solar panel technologies around the world.

Making a Difference: When Danna was awarded a Foundation Scholarship at her community college, which allowed her to continue her studies, she made a vow to help as many other students as she possibly could.  She was good to her word.  Service organizations on campus or in the community such as Upward Bound, BEAN and Alateen all count Danna in their roster of dedicated volunteers.

Accolades:  Danna was named a Martin Achievement Scholar from the Martin Foundation, the Boeing Adopt-A-Student Scholarship and also received the Stan Chu Writing Runner-Up Award.  In addition she was a Dean’s List Student and named to the All Washington State Academic Team by Phi Theta Kappa.

Interesting Fact:  During finals week Danna and her friends pass around a small rubber duck they've named Sergeant Pepper Duck. “He sits on our desk while we take our exams and he helps to remind us to stay calm, keep a sense of humor and is a reminder that there is more to life than only test scores.”

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