{"id":9130,"date":"2025-09-11T08:10:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T15:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/?p=9130"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:25:03","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T20:25:03","slug":"student-spotlight-tristan-griffith","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/2025\/09\/11\/student-spotlight-tristan-griffith\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Spotlight: Tristan Griffith"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"breadcrumbs\" typeof=\"BreadcrumbList\" vocab=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/\">\r\n\t<!-- Breadcrumb NavXT 7.2.0 -->\n<span property=\"itemListElement\" typeof=\"ListItem\"><a property=\"item\" typeof=\"WebPage\" title=\"Go to Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture.\" href=\"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/\" class=\"main-home\" ><span property=\"name\">Voiland College<\/span><\/a><meta property=\"position\" content=\"1\"><\/span><span property=\"itemListElement\" typeof=\"ListItem\"><a property=\"item\" typeof=\"WebPage\" title=\"Go to Voiland College Student Success.\" href=\"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\" class=\"home\" aria-current=\"page\"><span property=\"name\">Voiland College Student Success<\/span><\/a><meta property=\"position\" content=\"2\"><\/span><\/div><header class=\"wsu-article-header \">\r\n\t<h1 class=\"wsu-article-header__title\">\r\n\t\tStudent Spotlight: <br>Tristan Griffith\t<\/h1>\r\n\t\t<\/header>\r\n\n\n\n<p>First-year mechanical engineering student Tristan Griffith is a recipient of Voiland College\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/scholarships\/\">Distinguished Dean&#8217;s Scholarship<\/a>, which provides full tuition and is renewable for up to four years, thanks to generous donor support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Tristan shares his thoughts about his decision to attend WSU and what he is looking forward to in his first year of school.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\" wsu-overlap wsu-spacing-after--xxmedium\">\r\n\t<div class=\"wsu-overlap__container\">\r\n\t\t\n<div class=\" wsu-overlap__column  wsu-overlap--surface-column\">\r\n    <div class=\"wsu-overlap__column-inner\">\r\n        \n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large  wsu-image--style-framed\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"792\" height=\"1056\" src=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-792x1056.jpg\" alt=\"Tristan Griffith.\" class=\"wp-image-9132\" srcset=\"https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-792x1056.jpg 792w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-396x528.jpg 396w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2-149x198.jpg 149w, https:\/\/wpcdn.web.wsu.edu\/wp-vcea\/uploads\/sites\/3466\/2025\/08\/thumbnail_thumbnail_image001-2.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 792px) 100vw, 792px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n    <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n<div class=\" wsu-overlap__column  wsu-overlap--surface-column wsu-overlap--overlap-xxmedium\">\r\n    <div class=\"wsu-overlap__column-inner\">\r\n        \n\n<div style=\"height:70px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer wsu-hide--tablet\"><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wsu-container wsu-dropshadow--medium wsu-color-background--white wsu-spacing-top--xmedium wsu-spacing-padding-right--xmedium wsu-spacing-padding-left--xmedium wsu-spacing-bottom--sxxsmall\" >\r\n    \n\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Major: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/degrees.wsu.edu\/degree\/mechanical-engineering\/\">Mechanical Engineering<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Expected Date of Graduation:<\/strong> May 2029<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Home Town<\/strong>: Oak Harbor, WA<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>High School<\/strong>: Oak Harbor High School<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Scholarships:<\/strong>  \n<ul>\n<li>Distinguished Dean\u2019s Scholarship<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>James and Carol Graybill Scholarship<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Elks Lodge local and state scholarships<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n    <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\n\t<\/div> \r\n<\/div>\r\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading wsu-font-size--large\">Why did you choose to attend Washington State University?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I chose WSU because of the community. Here, I felt like an individual, not just a number, which wasn\u2019t the case at some other schools I considered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">Why major in mechanical engineering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>My dream is to go to space, but I don\u2019t yet know the exact path to get there. I chose the broadest engineering major to give myself the most options for my future. My AP Physics teacher, Mr. Crebbin, sparked my interest in engineering, and I\u2019ve always been strong in math, so it felt like the right fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">What are you looking forward to this year?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>I\u2019m most excited about internships! They\u2019re something I\u2019ve never done before, and I know they\u2019ll open up many opportunities for me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading  wsu-font-size--large\">What does it mean to receive the Distinguished Dean&#8217;s Scholarship?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>To me, winning this scholarship means I need to work as hard as I can to represent Voiland College.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tristan Griffith is a mechanical engineering student graduating in May 2029.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1120,"featured_media":9132,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[570],"tags":[597],"wsuwp_university_location":[332],"wsuwp_university_org":[504,443],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1120"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9130"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10057,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9130\/revisions\/10057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=9130"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vcea.wsu.edu\/student-success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=9130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}