Presidential Scholar Bradlee Thielen
Design student Bradlee Thielen is the recipient of the 2019 Western Washington University Presidential Scholar's Award for the College of Fine and Performing Arts.
Awardees are graduating seniors who are accomplished scholars; have demonstrated success in furthering multicultural programs and activities; and have achieved levels of service to the community that have benefited their peers, their departments, and the community.
Bradlee is a recipient of the Paul Arnold Memorial Scholarship from the Pride Foundation. Bradlee is also a GSBA scholar, Western Alumni Scholar and an Adobe Design Semi-Finalist.
In high school, he was the ASB Vice-President, 12th in his class and the Lieutenant Governor of Division 42 Valley in the Pacific Northwest District of Key Club International.
During and continuing after high school, he was the art coordinator for a local non profit from Cowlitz county that held seminars and camps to help high school students understand the power of empathy and how to utilize social justice to create campaigns that can benefit the under represented groups within their schools and help tackle current issues within their schools as well.
He was also a junior counselor at an associated Washington student leaders summer camp called Mount Triumph for three years that helped high school ASB leaders learn how to work in teams, problem solve collectively for a common goal and communicate in challenging situations. He hopes to represent the queer community through visual communication and working with brands and companies dedicated to positively contributing to the LGBTQIA+ community.
One of his goals by the end of the school year will be to create a curated alphabetical anthology of queer history to be easily accessed by anybody from anywhere. Bradlee hopes to one day form a queer art collective that can empower and inspire others through illustration, graphic design and community outreach.