Scott Ronald graduated from Gillespie High School in 2005, earning The Partnership’s Bud McCormack Memorial Scholarship. He used this $500 tuition award to study criminal justice at Lewis and Clark Community College in Godfrey, Illinois.
In 2007 Scott transferred to Western Illinois University at Macomb where he completed a Bachelor of Science degree in 2009, majoring in Law Enforcement and Justice Administration and minoring in scuba diving. Then in 2016-2017 he earned a masters degree in Criminal Justice Administration from Lindenwood University in St. Louis.
He has worked with the Missouri State Highway Patrol (MSHP) since July 2010. He is currently a Trooper 1st Class, working in the gaming division. “I am assigned to the Ameristar Casino in St. Charles, investigating a multitude of financial crimes, theft, and drug-related crime. I am also a division instructor, providing annual training in firearms and first responder skills,” he says. Scott hopes to one day train new recruits for the MSHP at its Law Enforcement Academy in Jefferson City.
Scott and his fiancee Stefanie Klaus will be married in November 2017. They stay busy working on the house they recently built. Scott is also a marine reef tank keeper of saltwater fish and enjoys scuba diving “anytime I can.”
Reflecting on his post-secondary education, Scott says: “It has allowed me to shape a professional career rather than relying solely on my training as a recruit. I have used the working knowledge gained through each and every course I took in college and grad school. It would have been a major struggle to make it to where I am today without that education.”
In regard to The Partnership award, he notes that “the scholarship I was honored to receive allowed me to go to community college where I was able to take the time to figure out and understand the path I wanted to choose. The $500 took some of the burden off of my and my parents’ shoulders; it and others I received helped pave my way to my present career.”
Scott is the son of Gary and Dianne Ronald of Gillespie.