Pasadena Water and Power Backs Trade-School Students With a New Scholarship

[photo credit: Pasadena Water and Power]

Pasadena Water and Power is inviting a different kind of student to apply for its scholarship money this year: not the university-bound senior, but the one headed for a trade school or community college to learn the hands-on work of keeping water flowing and the power on.

The utility’s Utility Trade Scholarship, new for 2026, will award $1,000 to one Pasadena resident enrolling in a vocational or technical school or community college in Southern California for the 2026-2027 academic year, according to PWP’s website and a City of Pasadena announcement. PWP has said it expanded its scholarship offerings to reach students at those schools, not only seniors bound for four-year universities. Applications are due Dec. 31.

To be eligible, an applicant must live within PWP’s service territory and plan to enroll full time in a qualifying Southern California program for the spring 2027 semester, according to the guidelines posted on the utility’s website. Students who are at least 17 and already in the first year of such a program may also apply. Immediate family members of current or former PWP employees are not eligible.

Applying takes a video. Students record three to five minutes describing the background and motivations behind the water or power trade they have chosen.

The award sits alongside PWP’s longer-running Educational Scholarship, which gives $5,000 and $2,500 to two college-bound Pasadena high school seniors. This summer, the city named Blair High School’s Adrianna Bäumle the 2026 first-place winner of that program and John Muir High School Early College Magnet’s Mildred Gonzalez the second-place winner.

It was Bäumle whom the city put forward to promote the trades award. In a recent social media post, Pasadena Water and Power said she had met with the professionals who maintain the city’s water and power infrastructure before leaving for college, where she plans to study mechanical engineering.

Those workers — the ones who keep Pasadena’s water and power flowing — are the workforce PWP says the new award is meant to reach.

The Pasadena Water and Power Utility Trade Scholarship application deadline is Thursday, December 31, 2026; because it is a submission deadline rather than an in-person event, no start time, venue or parking applies. There is no application fee. Completed applications, transcripts and a video link are emailed to PWPCommunications@CityOfPasadena.net, and transcripts may also be mailed to the PWP Marketing Team, 150 South Los Robles Avenue, Suite 200. For more, call (626) 744-4005 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, or visit PWPweb.com/Trades.