Plenty of people in Washington tree fruit know the Washington Apple Education Foundation as a scholarship fund. That’s true, and this year the number is a big one. But it isn’t the whole story, and in the second episode of Dot the Trees, Jennifer Witherbee tells the rest.
Jennifer is the Executive Director of WAEF, the charity the tree fruit industry created in 1994 to support industry families and build stronger communities. She sat down with our Head of Agent Relations and Innovation, Josh Benson, who has been in crop insurance for 25 years and a monthly WAEF donor for a long time.
A tree fruit kid who found a career in tree fruit
Jennifer grew up in a tree fruit family in the Chelan area. Her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were growers. Like a lot of WAEF students, she knew what she saw from the road: crews picking, tractors working, the year-round rhythm of an orchard. What she didn’t know was how many other jobs the industry holds (crop insurance among them).
She joined WAEF in 2001 and spent more than 20 years there before stepping away to work at the accounting firm Larson Gross. She came back in 2025, when the foundation needed her again. As she put it: “WAEF kind of captures your heart. And the joy of getting to be part of that can be a little addictive.”
WAEF’s biggest year yet
This year WAEF awarded more than $1.3 million in scholarships to 322 students, the most in its history. About 400 donors give each year, Jennifer said, and close to 300 volunteers give their time.
The scholarships don’t stop after freshman year. If students meet the requirements, industry funding follows them all the way to graduation. It works: according to WAEF, 96 percent of its students renew their scholarship or graduate each year. Josh compared it to having an accountability partner: you do your part, and they keep doing theirs.
And it isn’t only for four-year degrees. WAEF supports students at technical and vocational schools, community colleges and universities, studying everything from agriculture and engineering to healthcare, education and business. “We know we need all of those things in thriving communities,” Jennifer said.
That number meant a lot to Josh. As he said, the last five years have been tough ones for the industry, and people are still giving more than ever. Jennifer put it simply: industry members have kept WAEF a priority “in the lean years and in those years when their hard work and risk gets rewarded.” Anyone who works in crop insurance knows exactly which years she means.
More than the money
Most of WAEF’s dollars go out as scholarships. Much of its time, and its volunteers’ time, goes somewhere else. WAEF has three priorities for its students, and that’s where volunteers come in:
- Persistence to graduation: walking alongside students through each year of school.
- Career exploration and networking: industry people sharing what they do, giving tours, and becoming the contact who helps with a first internship or job.
- Personal and professional development: teaching the skills that help students launch.
One of the things Jennifer enjoys most at career events is watching students find out that most people’s careers aren’t a straight line. (Josh is a case in point: retail manager in Yakima, his dad’s agency in Prosser, three years at a San Francisco-based AI company building crop insurance software, and back to the agency side.) You can see the relief on their faces, she said, when they realize that at eighteen, nineteen or twenty they don’t have to decide today what they’ll do for the rest of their lives.
If you think you have nothing to give because you don’t have much money, think again. Your time and your experience count too, and WAEF keeps a running list of volunteers it can match with students. You can get in touch at waef.org/volunteer.
Two things you can do right now
Tell a student the application is open. Josh asked Jennifer what she would want if every orchard, warehouse and packing house in Washington did one thing differently tomorrow. Her answer: make sure every student with the potential, or the dream, to go to college knows there’s help out there. The WAEF scholarship application opened on October 15 at waef.org/scholarships, and closes March 1. The team is happy to answer questions from students and parents.
Give in November, when it goes further. During WAEF’s November match campaign, general donations made to WAEF are matched by the campaign sponsors: Insure.ag, CMI Orchards, BASF and Bayer Crop Science. Last year was the campaign’s biggest yet, and this year they’re hoping to beat it. You can give at waef.org/donate, as a one-time gift or monthly.
Why it matters
Josh asked Jennifer what she tells someone who wants to know why any of this matters. Her answer was short: “What we do just changes lives.” The tree fruit industry helps a lot of families realize the American dream, she said. Supporting the children of those families “forever changes that family’s trajectory,” and the ripple effects last for generations.
We’re proud to stand with WAEF, through our sponsorship and through people like our own Lupe Villasenor, who serves on the WAEF board. Lupe has also written about what WAEF has meant to her and her family.
Where to listen
Episode 2 is live now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.
New to the show? Start with Episode 1, where Josh talks technology in crop insurance with our CEO, Andrew Burdock.
Have a topic you want covered, or someone you think Josh should talk to? Send us a note at connect@insure.ag. We’re all ears.