Photo: Amanda MacGlashin, 17, of Fall Creek, who has 18 college credits from Chippewa Valley Technical College, is awarded a $1,000 Badger State Sheriff’s Association Scholarship in the name of former Eau Claire Sheriff Ron Cramer, who died in 2022.
Looking back, Amanda MacGlashin believes she and her friends were targets of human traffickers while hanging out at the mall.
“I remember a couple of times where we’ve had some questionable people come up to us and ask us to do things for them,” she said. “I was 13, and we were so surprised. We were like, how often does this happen? I remember that made me really angry. I was just so furious. This is what these people were spending their day doing.”
As MacGlashin made her way through Fall Creek High School, she decided she wanted to be a part of the solution – to protect people in danger of being trafficked and to give people a voice to tell their stories.
“I decided I was going to do something about it, so that’s what I’m doing,” she said.
Her interest also led her to apply for the $1,000 Badger State Sheriff’s Association Scholarship. She didn’t realize it was being offered for the first time and in the name of former Eau Claire Sheriff Ron Cramer who died in 2022, until she had received the call that she was the recipient.
MacGlashin accepted the scholarship in May and is thankful to receive such a meaningful award on behalf of Ron Cramer’s legacy.
“I was so excited,” she said. “I tried to keep my composure because it was in front of professionals. This is what I’ve been wanting forever.”
The $1,000 will help MacGlashin attend CVTC to finish her associate degree in criminal justice.
She’s ready to continue to get to know her instructors and to take the rest of her classes and then help find human trafficking perpetrators.
“A lot of times, the victims don’t want to say they’re a victim,” she said. “That’s why it’s that much more difficult. You just want to get them behind bars. That’s definitely what I’m going to do.
