Honors Grad Profiles

Proudest Moment: I helped to found and direct an organization at UW called Capillaries: The Journal of Narrative Medicine. Capillaries is a quarterly journal, intended for undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, and staff from all departments in the humanities and sciences to explore the commonalities we share as humans and to understand how both objective facts and subjective feelings intertwine in healthcare. Since February 2018, we have worked to provide a safe space for community members to discuss and share their most vulnerable and often silenced experiences through writing and art. Recently, we published our Spring 2020 journal, featuring 60 works of narrative prose, poetry, and artwork, created by students and healthcare workers about their experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://www.capillariesjournal.com/

Thesis: The Role of STING in Latent and Lytic KSHV Infection of Primary Endothelial Cells

Hi, I’m Alice! Looking back on the past four years at UW, perhaps the word that best captures this experience is “homeostasis” –the process by which a living entity maintains a steady internal system while adjusting to changes in its external environment. Although the term is often used in a biological context, it has resonated with me on a more philosophical, human level: My UW experience has involved constant interrogation and assessment of my own internal values and aspirations in response to the university environment. Upon starting college, I was interested in understanding both the biological and psychosocial facets of human health and thus immersed myself in classes ranging from medical bacteriology to medical anthropology. I was also drawn, however, to my classes in the English Department. The process of writing and sharing my own poetry was empowering, and studying literature ranging from Victorian novels to modern short stories from Ghana provided the most powerful examination of what it means to be human –from how we navigate moments of love and loss to how we make sense of our positionality in our community and the broader world.

I am humbled to have also had the opportunity to conduct and publish research through UW’s Microbiology Department, to found and lead a literary journal (“Capillaries”) dedicated to empowering students to share their stories on health and healing, and lastly, to give back to my community through volunteering/social justice work. These experiences have shaped my desire to pursue medicine in the future and to continue finding balance between various goals –conducting research, honoring the stories of the community through the arts, and helping others to navigate the most vulnerable moments of their life and attain their own sense of personal homeostasis.

To my mentors and professors who instilled in me a love for learning, to my labmates, project collaborators, and friends for their warmth, laughter, and support, and to the programs and organizations that provided me with research funding and grants for launching and sustaining Capillaries: Thank you for taking a chance on me these past four years. I am indebted to you all~

Thesis: Understanding Geographies of Fear and Safety in Urban Transit Space

adriennehub@gmail.com

My parents met when my mom was a TA for a class my dad took during his undergrad; attending UW has always been my goal and dream. I feel immensely proud to be a third generation UW graduate. The last two years here have been challenging, transformative, and more meaningful than I know how to articulate right now. After receiving my associate degree through Running Start at Bellevue College, I immersed myself within the Geography department at UW and found my place within academia. Geography is a field wide enough to encompass all my interests; cartography, emotional geographies, public transportation, urbanism, feminist and gender studies. I love collecting maps and riding trains and talking to people about the emotions they experience in the cities they love. I am forever grateful to the UW geography community for teaching me how to experience and think critically about place and belonging. Being a part of the Geography department honors program allowed me to write the thesis I have felt compelled to write, a project that emerged from my own lived experience. I don't know exactly where I'm going next; maybe urban planning, or teaching social studies to high school kids, or working for a non-profit. Grad school is on the horizon, somewhere and at some point in time. I'll spend this summer riding trains across the country and catching up on all the reading I have been meaning to do, and then I'll find a place where I can help create some tangible change in this world (or at least in this city). I'm about to turn twenty years old and I know that my most important accomplishments are yet to come.

Proudest Moment: Being able to pull my grades and requirements together in 2 years to graduate with UW honors

I started my college education in Oregon where I first discovered traditional philosophy and political philosophy-- immediately falling in love. As I progressed in my studies, I felt unfulfilled, as philosophy often makes one feel. So I packed up my life and left to study in the heart of it all; Rome. While learning amongst some of the oldest structures of "modern" government, I was also able to travel around Europe visiting historical landmarks such as the Acropolis, Sachsenhausen, and the Sagrada Família. I visited 7 countries and saw everything Italy had to offer from the Northern mountains to the bright blue coast, and the rolling hills of Tuscany. Here, I decided I needed to be at a university that had like-minded people willing to seriously question the condition of the world my generation is inheriting. I found these people in my philosophy classes at the University of Washington. Being able to be surrounded by an environment where being a "nerd" is the status quo, I felt I didn't have to hide how much I cared about my studies anymore. Thus, over my short two years here I have been challenged and grown so much. After Trump was elected, I started an internship at Senator Patty Murray's office through UW which taught me the value of individual citizen's voices, local government, and grassroots organizations. In my academics at UW, I have learned so much from my peers and my professors as well as from myself. UW truly has fostered the academic environment I needed in my undergraduate career in order to introspectively reflect on how I want to be as a person.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW was when I submitted my thesis after a year and a half of research and writing in both the Dominican Republic and New York.

Thesis: Motivations Driving the Differentiated Electoral Behavior of the Dominican Diaspora in New York during the 2012 and 2016 Dominican Presidential Elections

marielletrumbauer@gmail.com

My college career has defined and sparked in my a passion for activism. I spent my freshman year in Ireland at Trinity College Dublin before transferring to UW. During my time at UW, I worked on a Presidential campaign in Florida, a Senatorial campaign in Louisiana, and a Congressional campaign in Georgia. I also interned with the State Department in the Dominican Republic and the House of Representatives.

I began my college career as a business major, but later found my passion for politics and international relations. Applying to the Jackson School of International Studies was one of the best decisions that I made during my time at UW. I was able to serve as the President of the Jackson School Student Association (JSSA) and partake in the Departmental Honors Program. I joined my fellow honors classmate in her research in rural India, conducted research in the Dominican Republic, and did interviews all throughout New York City to compile an 84-page thesis that proved factors of corruption as motivators behind differentiated voting patterns in the diaspora.

My experience during the past three years at UW has inspired me to work in politics and stand up for marginalized populations. I plan to attend law school in the next three years and move to Washington D.C. with the goal of working for a Congressional Office.

Proudest Moment: Gaining so many great mentors in various aspects whether its professionally, academically, or life in general.

Thesis: Assessing reliance on Pacific salmon as a food source for brown bears (Ursus arctos)

hyejooro97@gmail.com

I am really grateful to have various research experiences through my time at UW. I was able to help with a variety of different grad student projects, and work on my own research as well. Because of research, I've spent a lot of hours in a lab or in front of a computer screen, but what I love most about aquatic sciences are the times spent out in the field.
After spending a good chunk of my life dedicated to school, I am looking forward to seeing what's next in this upcoming chapter of life, and I hope it includes time to travel/explore.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments is when I was able to share my research about e-cigarettes with legislators in Olympia, WA to lobby for public health bills.

gabbygersten@gmail.com

I was born and raised in Seattle and I am so proud to graduate from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Arts in Public Health--Global Health. I have learned so much and have made so many meaningful relationships these past four years that I will always cherish. After graduation, I will be continuing to work as a Behavior Technician, a challenging yet rewarding position, and I hope to attend graduate school to earn a Master's in Occupational Therapy within the next few years.

Proudest Moment: When the paper was accepted to RSS.

Thesis: Learning Cluttered Scene Manipulation with Goals

My Website

I study Computer Science and Electrical Engineering at the University of Washington. I am an undergraduate researcher advised by Prof. Dieter Fox in Robotics and State Estimation Lab. I also work closely with Dr. Yu Xiang in NVIDIA Robotics Lab. My research focus lies in Computer Vision and Robotics. I also have broad interests in Optimization and Machine Learning.

Proudest Moment: When my first studio project was selected for student archive for the departmental cite.

Thesis: Building with Bamboo: An exploration of joinery between traditional and contemporary method.

shresthamartin@yahoo.com

Architecture has a power to change the world. In a way, architects are like a magician, who can make fantasy into reality. With the modern approach, our world is getting rather boring with predictable designs and box architecture everywhere. So, as an architect my interests are to make interesting architecture that deviates from the normal ones and the one that enhances human experience, which also aids for the better and sustainable future.

Proudest Moment: Having a spark of curiosity in my heart and designing experiments with my research mentor. It feels ever so rewarding to know that every little step I took brings us a step closer to unlocking the secrets of nature.

Thesis: The Effect of Wnt5a Ligand on ROR2 Dimerization

tian.laura.li@hotmail.com

I have always been fascinated by the complexity and diversity of the human brain and the UW’s Neuroscience Honors program gave me the opportunity to explore the field of brain science. During my time as a student, I was not only able to learn about the various aspects of neuroscience in classroom, but I was also able to gain first-hand research experiences in lab. Starting from my junior year, I joined the Barria lab here at UW studying neuronal plasticity, which is the molecular basis of learning and memory of the brain.
In the meanwhile, I have always been a passionate ballet dancer and I am very grateful for the opportunity to also minor in dance here at UW. The diverse courses in dance technique, history, and anatomy allowed me to grow into a well-rounded dancer.

Proudest Moment: That day I was called on in class and had the right answer (at least I think that happend at least once)

If I wasn't a nurse I would probably bake cakes. Since baking cakes = eating cakes, I'm glad I chose the healthier route of nursing. The path to my BSN was not quick. It took about 10 years, taking 1 nursing pre-req at a time while developing my career in healthcare leadership. While the journey took longer than expected I'm glad I have context and direction in who I want to be as a nurse. I believe nurses are uniquely equipped to change healthcare for the better and I want to be a part of that. I didn't expect nursing school to change me but it has. I have been surrounded by compassionate and inspiring faculty, patients, and colleagues. They've made me a great nurse and an even better human. I am grateful to walk away changed.

Proudest Moment: I have been able to meet many amazing people, especially through OMAD, that inspired me.

Thesis: Analysis of B cell gene expression during HSV-2 reactivation

During my years at UW, I have opportunities to be a part of many different associations, such as OMAD, TriO McNair, Research Labs... Through there I have learned to become a better version of myself. I am proud to have met all of the amazing people that I met. They were the source of inspiration, and also the reason how I found my passion. I would love to continue pursuing my passion in immunology in the future. In my free time, I love listening to music, eating food and watching cute videos.

Proudest Moment: Going to Russia for a conference on arctic relations.

Thesis: The Development of an Assay for the Large-Scale Measurement of the Gaseous Biomarker Hydrogen Sulfide in Blood

ddrruss@uw.edu

Hello, I started college in 2013 here at the University of Washington. I will graduate with a B.S. in Biochemistry and a B.A. in Medical Anthropology. Departmental Honors was a good choice, it kept me on top of my grades and it made me feel like my research was noteworthy. I am glad that I attended a school with so many research opportunities and such a multitude of classes to choose from; I was able to take everything from a class on CAD design to 2.5 years of Russian language. The research opportunities at this university were the big pull for me to attend and they did not disappoint. Conducting undergraduate research was such a good experience for me, that I realized research is what I wanted to do full time. I developed a passion for analytical chemistry and I am now coming back to UW this fall to begin a PhD program in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry. I am quite excited for what the future will bring.

Proudest Moment: The feeling of relief & happiness from publishing two research reports within the span of three months!

Thesis: Victimization in Post-Conflict Recovery: The Effects of International Language, Media, and Social Identity on Persons with Disabilities in Sierra Leone

grace.stephenson@yahoo.com

These past four years have shaped both my personal and career goals - I have grown immensely and been able to explore and refine my interests in social justice, health, and human rights!

My passion for public health and justice strives from my belief that everyone deserves access to services and health. Yet so many people are systematically denied this right, particularly marginalized communities. I really hope that I can do my small part to push for equity in the US and abroad throughout my life.

Senior year, I was able to do research in two fields. Through the JSIS Honors program, I worked closely with professors and local organizations on research related to persons with disabilities in post-conflict recovery. Through Task Force, I was able to be a part of a lovely team that researched human rights abuses & ICE Air Operations in King County.

When I went to India for three months and worked at a few nonprofits my sophomore year, I knew that if I wanted to be useful I needed to learn Hindi. So I have been taking Hindi at the UW for the past two years. It's been really, really hard but rewarding! I hope to work on issues surrounding human rights in India one day, particularly around sexual and gender based violence.

Working with Its On Us, the campaign to stop sexual assault on college campuses, both nationally and at UW, I have been able to advocate for those affected and provide resources on campus. This continued as I did research on trauma-focused care on campuses with the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Center! I have loved dedicating my time to something so important.

There are so many causes I want to work on - but when I'm not working I love to paint, travel, spend time outdoors, watch hysterically bad movies, and eat (a lot).

I am excited to start working in the field & hopefully traveling before grad school in a few years!

Proudest Moment: Making the Dean's List with a 3.8 GPA while taking 19 credits.

Thesis: Black Student-Athletes' Experience at Predominantly White Institutes

I am a former full-scholarship Tight End for the UW football team. I struggled in school for my first 2.5 years of college because I didn't care about school and never believed I could succeed. I made a switch in my approach to school late in my sophomore year, in the midst of battling through multiple injuries.

I turned my entire academic experience around starting from ground zero. I didn't know how to study or what studying really looked like. After turning my grades around from 2.6s to now 3.7s+, I am now driven to set the example for other Black student-athletes and people of color in general. I will continue to break barriers that were set in front of Black students, in particular, Black student-athletes, of what we can and can't do.

My accomplishments are as follows:

1. Securing an internship with Amazon Web Services as a Product Marketing Intern

2. Student Athlete Leadership Forum, PAC 12 Representative:
Selected as one of two student athletes conference wide to represent the PAC 12 in Orlando, Florida

3. Sigma Leadership Conference, Motivational Keynote Speaker:
Spoke to a group of minorities, 9th-12th grade, about what it takes to be successful and excel not only in college but as a future business leader

4. Student Athlete Leadership Team, UW Athletics Representative:
Selected to represent UW athletics regarding athlete legislation at NCAA conference

5. UW Board of Regents Representative
Selected to represent all UW student-athletes to talk about the student-athlete experience in both academics and sports

6. Husky Leadership Academy - Executive Leadership Certificate recipient:
One-year designed to challenge UW student-athletes through coursework in leadership competencies and experiences. Provides participants with tools to effectively lead themselves and others, navigate challenging environments, and empower others to lead.

7. Washington Student Athlete Advisory Committee (WSAAC):
Gave input on NCAA legislation centered on Division I athletics; serves as the voice of the student-athlete at the University of Washington on how to improve our community

Proudest Moment: My best memories at UW come from spending time with outstanding, goofy, and vibrant individuals who not only motivated me to become better, but also to enjoy life once (or twice) in a while.

Thesis: Effect of SS-31 on the Sod1KO Model of Sarcopenia

My Website kevinanguyen2@gmail.com

Hello! I'm Kevin Nguyen. I'll be graduating with a degree in Physiology this year, and I enjoy drawing and painting in my free time.

It feels surreal to conclude my 4 years of undergrad at UW. I remember back to the beginning of high school when I first designated UW as my dream school like it was yesterday. So much has happened during my time here and I will carry the endless memories, relationships, and lessons with me as I continue along my own journey.

Some highlights from my undergraduate career include: working on an extensive research project in the Marcinek lab for almost 3 years; learning from and assisting patients in clinical settings every summer; and collaborating with rad individuals on the Neurobiology Club officer board. And while STEM classes were something else, I'll give some credit to the endless and toiling hours of study for allowing me to indulge in the arts of learning and physiology.

Most importantly, my undergrad experiences have given me a greater perspective on life. There are many many things in this world that need to be improved upon. Personally, I will pursue medicine to not only to heal others but also to fight and rectify the disparities and conflicts that obscure the field from its full potential. My past interactions with other bright individuals along my journey have ensured me that they will do great things and change their respective fields for the better as well.

Proudest Moment: Majoring in English

Phi Beta Kappa, English departmental Honors, OWRC tutor, Engl 281 TA,

Proudest Moment: I am proud of the growth I have seen in my person over these past years.

Thesis: Investigating the Properties and Mechanism of Action of Potential Novel Analgesic AS1

Lais is an avid scholar with an interest in neuroscience, biology, nutrition, and more. During her time at the University of Washington, she worked in the de la Iglesia lab on a project on the NaV1.1 channel in Dravet Syndrome, for which she won the Mary Gates Research Scholarship in winter of 2019. She then was a Pain Research Scholar in 2019 and moved to the Dhaka lab. She wrote her Neuroscience Departmental Honors Thesis on her work in the Dhaka lab on the impact of a potential novel analgesic AS1 on aversion in zebrafish.
Outside of school, Lais spends time volunteering through COPE and at ROOTS Young Adult shelter. She also enjoys biking, drawing, and reading.

Proudest Moment: I survived four years of college with five hours of sleep per day on average.

I am a hardcore undergraduate researcher interested in interbacterial and host-microbiome interactions. After I finish my B.S. in both Microbiology and Biology, I will attend the Ph.D. program in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology at Duke University in Fall, 2019.

Proudest Moment: Securing a 6-month supply chain internship with Unilever thanks to my class and research experiences.

I came to UW from the Sacramento, CA area and I am graduating with a degree in Industrial Engineering. I have had the opportunity to learn from some great professors, perform research, and work for several companies. Since my sophomore year, I have been working on a team in the ISE department doing research for the U.S. Navy. Through this research, we have built a statistical tool that predicts part obsolescence for parts in naval ship, airplane, and other systems. I am proud knowing that the research we performed will be used on a daily basis by the Navy. Beginning last summer and continuing through the Fall 2019 quarter, I completed a 6-month supply chain co-op for Unilever at its Lipton tea factory in Suffolk, VA. I worked on many interesting projects and learned a lot through this experience.

Being an out-of-state student, I will miss all of the amazing friends I met throughout my time at UW. One of my favorite UW memories was watching the Dawgs play in the Rose Bowl. In the fall, I will be pursuing my Master's degree in Supply Chain Engineering at Georgia Tech.

Proudest Moment: Getting accepted to the Architectural Design Major

My Website

Coming to UW has been an adventure, from finding community around the campus, to studying abroad in Italy, to late, late nights working on architecture assignments. I still remember one of my earliest days on campus walking through Gould Hall, looking at all the amazing projects in the Arch. Design program, and saying aloud "I want to go to this school, and I want to do this program!" Fast forward a few short years later and it's on to the next chapter already.

I'll never forget the memories from the program. Across all the studios I was a part of, I had the opportunity to design urban farms, schools, sculptures, private retreats, and community spaces that gave me a chance to engage with real people on real sites. Learning not just how to draw a space, but to make a meaningful connection between people and places in a design is something I will take with me for the rest of my life. Getting the chance to study abroad was also an experience that resonated deeply with everything I've learned and grown to love about Architecture, and I could not be more grateful for the time we had there.

In addition to the major, UW gave me a chance to continue working at a writing center. As a high school student, I did Running Start full-time and worked at the Highline Writing Center, which is how I learned of the Odegaard Writing and Research Center. Working one-on-one with students across all majors and fields of study was such a privilege, and helping them craft their research, personal statements, and stories was one of the most meaningful connections to the campus I've had during my stay here.

I am both sad to reach the end of this chapter and eager to start the next one. Most of all though, I am grateful for the community and memories I've made at the UW.

Proudest Moment: When our team's work got accepted into ACL

Thesis: A Knowledge Incorporation Framework for Medical Natural Language Inference

During my four years at UW, I found my interests in computer science and linguistics, two seemingly irrelevant fields that are actually connected in many ways. I eventually ended up doing research at their intersection, natural language processing (NLP). I've been fortunate to have had amazing research experiences at Prof. Fei Xia's lab as well as in the industry, and the classes that I've taken at UW have excellently prepared me for these opportunities.

I will be returning to UW for my Master's degree to continue my learning!

Proudest Moment: I have always dreamed of going to veterinary school, and I knew that with enough hard work I’d make it there. What I did not yet know was the amazing community of people I would surround myself with in my time at UW who helped me reach my goals and celebrated my success by my side.

The opportunities I’ve been given as a UW student have shaped me into the person I am today, and continue to push me forward toward achieving my goals. Through my sorority, I have discovered my strengths as a leader and the power of teamwork. Through the UW Pre-Vet Society, I built connections that helped me gain first vet assistant job, guided me through the vet school application process, and brought me new friends. Academically, several professors on this campus pushed my thinking and challenged me in ways I didn’t expect, and I am better for it. I am fortunate enough to have received several scholarships that made it possible for me to attend UW while saving for veterinary school which I’ll be starting this fall.

Proudest Moment: On top of winning "Best Poster Presentation" at the Program on the Environment Spring 2019 Capstone Symposium for her internship project, the trail recommendations she produced from a nine week long camera trap study were accepted and included in the Conservation Plan of her organization, Bainbridge Island Land Trust. This showed that Ariana's work and studies were meaningful and impactful for positive environmental change!

Thesis: Barking Up the Wrong Trail: How Trail Users and their Dogs Impact Wildlife

arianamwinkler@gmail.com

Ariana Winkler is graduating with degrees in Environmental Science and Resource Management (BS, Honors) and Environmental Studies (BA, Honors) with minors in Quantitative Science and Restoration Ecology. With an interdisciplinary approach to academia, her interests include environmental justice, wildlife, camera traps, statistics and modeling, restoration ecology and climate change mitigation. She appreciates the use of statistics and environmental knowledge to solve socio-ecological problems. Over the four years at UW, she has gained experience in camera trapping, analytical science, ecological field research and the interdisciplinary studies of the environment.
Being out in nature is one of Ariana's favorite features of her studies. Her most treasured memories include fieldwork classes like the Friday Harbor Laboratory Marine Biology Quarter, ESRM 459 Wildlife Conservation in the Northwest, ESRM 304 Environmental Resource Assessment in Pack Forest, the entire Restoration Ecology Capstone series and a Costa Rica study abroad course, where she hiked up to three times a day. In partnership with Osa Conservation in Costa Rica, Ariana modeled occupancy for ocelots on the Osa Peninsula, integrating her passions for wildlife and statistics.
With two degrees, she participated in two amazing capstones. As part of a team of six students, Ariana planned and implemented the restoration of a degraded forest ecosystem located in North Rose Hill Woodlands Park. In her other capstone, she interned with Bainbridge Island Land Trust to design and deploy a nine week long camera trap study, producing over six thousand photos. She used this camera trap data to create ecologically sound trail recommendations based on wildlife and human disturbance.
In addition to her studies, Ariana worked part-time throughout college, using her analytical and scientific skills as a lab technician at a private environmental laboratory. Applying her interest of environmental justice and climate change mitigation, she was a Regional Organizer for the Fossil Fuel Divestment Student Network and was heavily involved in DivestUW.
Ariana hopes to apply her skills in wildlife, land management and statistics to a job in the environmental sector. Nonetheless, Ariana knows learning never stops. After gaining some experience and getting a break from academia, she will look into pursuing a Master's degree in quantitative wildlife ecology.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments at UW was probably when I got published in two different UW publications: The UW Journal of Anthropology and Voyage Magazine.

Thesis: The Handcraft Movement: Analyzing of the Subjectivity of Value

My Website

Hi! My name is Olivia and I am graduating UW with college and interdisciplinary honors. Being from out of state, finding a fit in Washington was challenging at first but UW gave me so many opportunities to better discover myself and what I love to do. My time at UW has pushed me as a writer, connected me with individuals who have inspired my artistic pursuits, and has given me a family away from home. Looking into the future, I am excited for all the opportunities ahead of me and I know the skills I have learned during my past 4 years here will set me up for success.

Proudest Moment: Implementing a composting program in the Alpha chapter of Chi Omega!

kgibian@uw.edu

I will be graduating from UW this spring through the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences with honors in wildlife conservation. I am passionate about predator-prey ecology and conservation education with the goal to enter the wildlife field as a wildlife technician. My interests include large carnivores, travel, and superheroes!

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment was receiving a study abroad scholarship to study in Canada through the Killam Fellowships Program.

My two passions in life are earth sciences and performing arts. I am so glad that I was able to pursue both at the University of Washington, majoring in Earth and Space Sciences with departmental honors and minoring in Dance. Throughout my years in college, I have received three scholarships, studied abroad for four months in London, Ontario, CA, and became involved in two research projects with the Earth and Space Sciences and Atmospheric department. I am proud to be graduating with departmental honors and cum laude.

Proudest Moment: Being able to graduate with honors

Thesis: Resting-State EEG predicts learning rates in different languages

Majored in Early Childhood and Family Studies and Psychology, I am satisfied with my journey of learning at UW. Last year, I was able to study at University of British Columbia as an exchange student for an entire year. It was probably one of my best memories at UW. I am so glad I made the choice to study abroad to experience different cultures and to expand on my horizon. The guidance offered by my thesis mentor has greatly helped me to finish my project. I am deeply appreciative of her help. My mentor at the Husky Leadership Program is very supportive of me. I have learned a lot from her. After graduating from UW, I will pursue a graduate degree in education at Teachers College in New York this fall.

Interests: foodie, finding good bubble teas, playing educational games, ice-skating, watching classic/old movies

Proudest Moment: Each years' Apple Cup -- go Dawgs!

Thesis: Neuromodulation Effects of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) on Zebra Finch Premotor Nucleus

I participate in neuroscience research on campus and completed a research fellowship at Swedish Epilepsy Center last summer. Additionally, I volunteer as a mentor for disabled students with DO-IT Access STEM, and at an organization near campus that serves those facing homelessness. In my downtime, I enjoy dancing, being outdoors, and exploring Seattle. I’m looking forward to continuing my studies next fall at NYU School of Medicine!

Proudest Moment: Receive the Mary Gates Research Scholarship

I am from China. I like dancing, reading and yoga. My career direction is biomedical science, so I also did some research at several labs at UW.

Proudest Moment: Presenting research at the 21st UW Undergraduate Symposium with my lab partner, Hannah.

I entered the University of Washington knowing that I wanted to study Philosophy. At the time, I was unsure of how I could use Philosophy to impact the world beyond academia, but I was driven by my curiosity to study it nonetheless. I wanted to understand the world and to me, studying Philosophy was the best way to do this. Through my classes, I was able to engage in discussions concerning identity, quality of life, and what it means to be an epistemic agent in the world. I was given the opportunity to connect these discussions outside the college classroom by working with the Philosophy for Children Center, which focuses on empowering k-12 students through providing them the space to explore their own ideas. By working with k-12 students, I found that the students were asking the same questions, trying to understand the world similarly as me. I also found that many students were unable to fully engage with these questions because of overarching issues. Being a first-generation student myself, I understood the difficulties of focusing on school when other issues are prevalent. It made me passionate to learn about and address these issues through classes and research. I began dedicating myself to learning about ways to address inequities in education, focusing primarily on accessibility issues. As I leave UW, I hope to continue to learn and implement ways to make education accessible to all because a good education leads to more opportunities to live the life one wants, which in many cases increases the quality.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW was finishing my 30-minute documentary that shared the voices and stories of the indigenous people on the Olympic Coast.

Thesis: Ocean Acidification and Native Tribes: Sharing Stories from the Olympic Coast

Throughout my time at UW, I've had so many great experiences. As a two-year member of the SURE-EH (Student Undergraduate Research Experience in Environmental Health) program, I have completed two year-long independent research projects under the guidance of my faculty mentor Dr. Tania Busch Isaksen. Last year, my project focused on improving food waste sorting and recycling at Kirkland Middle School in Washington. During this project, I had the opportunity to first design my own methodology to conduct a waste audit at the school and then was able to instruct and work alongside students to help complete the audit. After analyzing the data with the specific goal of identifying barriers to proper food waste disposal, I created a poster to be displayed in the school’s hallway and collaborated with the school's Green Team to guide future targeted recycling improvement efforts. Continuing with the topic of food waste but at a larger scale, my project with SURE-EH this year involved improving the food waste management system of local food trucks. The City of Bellevue, a community with a robust food truck culture, was looking to revise its current food truck permitting process and was interested in incorporating a sustainable waste management component. In collaboration with two graduate students, I performed a policy analysis to identify the best practices of successful existing sustainable food truck operations around the country. From there, my team and I created qualitative interview questions and surveys and conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Bellevue such as food truck operators, waste management contractors, food donation organizations, and customers. My findings from this research will then be used to inform key recommendations to the City of Bellevue in launching their new sustainable food truck permitting program. Outside of SURE-EH, I also performed research as part of my senior capstone project. I interned with Washington Sea Grant on a project that involved partnering with indigenous coastal communities to examine how ocean acidification is affecting key marine resources as well as overall tribal well-being on the Olympic Coast of Washington. Within the project, my primary role involved conducting and recording in-person interviews with key partners involved in the project such as scientists, oceanographers and tribal leaders which I then edited into a short documentary highlighting the voice of native tribes and the effect these climate-related ocean changes have on their well-being. From there, I then conducted my own research on the vulnerabilities of Olympic Coast’s native peoples to ocean acidification from a food security, economic, and cultural perspective. Besides research, I'm is also currently working with King County DNRP Solid Waste Division as a Recycling and Environmental Services intern. For the past year, I have collaborated and assisted on a multitude of different projects ranging from the Green Schools program, transfer station recycling, the Threadcycle campaign, and many more. In this position, I have completed tasks such as updating public webpages with climate change information, designing infographics and displays to be distributed to schools, analyzing landfill waste tonnage data for potential recycling opportunities, and produced a video demonstrating ways to reduce food waste. Lastly, I've been a member and officer with UW's LUX Film Production club for the past three years. With this club, I've had the fun experience of working with other student filmmakers to write, create, and edit short films each quarter. As one of the club's many screenwriters, I'm so grateful to have had the chance to write dozens of screenplays and improve my writing ability. UW and the range of experiences it has to offer has allowed me to explore my interests and have worthwhile experiences that have lead me to be both prepared and excited for my journey after graduation.

Proudest Moment: Being inducted to the Husky 100

Thesis: Deep Learning Applied to Unreliable Contact Prediction in De Novo Protein Models

My Website

I'm a new Ph.D. student at the joint Carnegie Mellon -- University of Pittsburgh Computational Biology program. My primary research interests are improving out-of-the-box deep learning methods for computational biology and biological simulation. I aim to improve therapeutics development and bioinformatics availability in low resource settings.

Proudest Moment: Completing my honors thesis and making it to NCAAs my sophomore year

Thesis: Diffusion of Agricultural Innovation: A case study of the use of biosolids in the state of Washington

Annamaxwell@Comcast.net

I had the honor of running on the UW Track and Field and Cross Country team for the past five years while completing a BS in Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource management and a BA in Political Science. I love hiking, biking, trail running, birding, photography, and anything to do with rivers. I hope to run the Boston Marathon next year while I study for the LSAT.

Proudest Moment: Joining the Newbook Digital Texts Project and realizing my passion in research with Dr. Walter Andrews as my mentor

Thesis: Bitnation: Reimagination of the State-Citizen Relationship and Technological Optimism

My Website jiony4321@gmail.com

I was 13 when I left my hometown in South Korea and immigrated to the US. Understanding very little English and speaking even less, I could not imagine how achieved and proud I would feel after five years at University of Washington. Pursuing double degrees was no easy decision, but I was able to thrive thanks to the faculty and staff members at University of Washington who encouraged me to continue interdisciplinary learning and research.

Thanks to Dr. Walter Andrews, whom I met as an undergraduate researcher at UW, I stepped into the interdisciplinary path where I was able to combine my interests in international human rights and technologies. After graduation, I will be starting my first job as a Security Analyst in Chicago. After building more skills and experiences in the private sector, I hope to come back to the academia as a researcher in usable security and privacy tools and continue Dr. Andrews' legacy in interdisciplinary research.

As I move forward to the new city and the new chapter of my life, I will remember the excitement, fear, and courage I felt as a 13-year-old whose life started anew. I would like to thank my parents who made my education possible, all my friends who supported me through thick and thin, and UW faculty and staff members gave me countless valuable lessons.

Proudest Moment: Interning in Washington D.C. with the support of the Jackson Munro Public Service Fellowship!

Thesis: Effectiveness of Critical Ongoing Resource family Education (CORE-Teen): Support for Resource Parents of American Indian Teens

tao.stacie@columbia.edu

In my four, short years at the University of Washington, my interest in working with young children has grown into a life-long dedication for dismantling intergenerational & systemic inequity and racial disproportionality in the child welfare system. Numerous non-profit organizations and early intervention/learning centers have guided me towards a path of advocating for trauma and culturally informed social policy. As I pursue this work, I aim to create lasting social change through a transformative justice lens and uphold intentional practices to dismantle traditional power dynamics that have led to deep system inequity. Outside the classroom, I spent my spare time involved with research, public service, study abroad, and playing my trumpet with the Husky Marching Band & UW Symphony.

I am immensely grateful for the opportunities and support I received through the University of Washington; the womxn of color faculty and mentors that encouraged me to dream bigger; and my social work cohort for being role models of social change, accountability and grace.

I am eager to embark on my next journey of pursuing a Master’s of Science in Social Work at Columbia University, where I will be working with The Center on Poverty and Social Policy.

Proudest Moment: Conducting research on a topic I was so passionate about!

Thesis: Photovoice: Illuminating the Impacts of Inclusive Education Services in United States Public Schools

My Website daniellebenedict7@gmail.com

Dani is graduating from the University of Washington with honors and a BA in Social Welfare. Throughout her journey through the School of Social Work Honors Program, she has used the opportunity to critically reflect on the current state of inclusion and special education services in our public schools using a Community-Based Participatory Approach to allow students with disabilities to advocate and be the primary voices for special education reform. While at UW Dani has filled the roles of Vice President for the Mortar Board Tolo Chapter National College Honor Society, Community Service Co-Chair for the Organization of Student Social Workers, acted as a First-Year Interest Group (FIG) Leader, Dawg Daze Leader, and former UW Dream Project mentor and High School Lead. In her future Dani will be continuing her academic career by pursuing a Masters in Social Work with a concentration in Children, Youth, and Families. In her future Dani looks forward to supporting people with disabilities in attaining inclusion through meaningful employment in the community and having equitable access to education.

Proudest Moment: Co-author an academic paper that will publish soon.

chengz96@uw.edu

Glad that I spent the most memorable four years as a husky. I was lucky to get involved in multiple life-changing research projects, preparing myself for the coming Ph.D. studies. The experience, and the connections with faculties and friends are the treasures for the rest of my life, and I believe everybody feels this way.

Congratulations to all the graduates!
Go Dawgs! Go Huskies!

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment has been establishing the UW Eye Club; an organization that promotes vision care awareness and related philanthropic opportunities.

Thesis: The evolution of French in a province surrounded by English

My Website radnick9@gmail.com

I have always had an interest for the complexities of the human. My passion has guided me towards a career in healthcare. In particular, i’ve found the technical aspects of surgery to be most appealing. After conducting research for over three years, i’ve come to appreciate the finer details of biology and how fascinating the life sciences can be. I was honored to be chosen twice as a Mary Gates scholar for my research. Sharing my research with others at the Undergraduate Research Symposium has been quite a memorable experience for me, where I’ve been able to converse with individuals and observe their diverse research interests. It was quite an inspiring event where I learned about the amazing work being done at the UW. Moreover, completing a dual-degree has given me the privilege to learn about two completely different studies, while still integrating them into my daily life. I’ve found that French gets me to think about every other educational aspect that Physiology cannot cover solely by itself. Whether it may be the practicality of learning the language itself, global and cultural history, or even philosophy and literature, I’ve felt like French has been a significant contributor in providing me a well-round education. I am eager to begin the next stage of my educational journey. Currently, I am completing my remote EMT training with the intent of joining my local county’s emergency services department and their search and rescue crew. Through this, I am hoping to gain useful life experience before I attend medical school.

Proudest Moment: Making lifelong friends, and making lifelong memories with them.

My Website kurt3903@gmail.com

I came to UW in 2016 with the intent to become a nuclear physicist. It was a big change for me, not only transitioning from high school, but also to live in the city and take care of myself independently. I made many new friends and had the best roommates I could have hoped for here at UW! I also had a great part-time job working at Bay Laurel Catering, which was a very unique and rewarding experience. I got to participate in undergraduate research in the UW Quantum Ion Computing Group, working alongside a fun and talented group to put my physics skills to work.
The Physics Departmental Honors program showed me several new and exciting research applications in modern physics. I got to study several experiments in great detail, which not only improved my understanding of the physics involved in these studies, but gave me a greater appreciation for the applications of physics and the knowledge I was gaining.
Life at UW has certainly opened up my eyes to trying out new experiences and opportunities - I now see the wide variety of possible careers and higher education that await me as a physics graduate. While I am considering graduate school in my future, I want to get a job where I can apply my physics knowledge and see what fields I want to pursue in detail. I can't wait to see what the future holds for me and my fellow graduates!

Proudest Moment: For as long as my passion for pediatrics has existed, I had an extraordinarily ironic fear of working with premature infants. My senior capstone clinical at the UWMC Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has allowed me to overcome my fear in providing care for the smallest humans and become a confident caregiver to children of all ages and sizes.

Thesis: The Doorway Cafe: Addressing Youth Homelessness with a Cafe Model

As my undergraduate career comes to a close, I reflect on all that I have accomplished in the last five years at UW and all the personal and societal values that hold more closely as a direct result of my public health and nursing education. I believe that my two deepest personal values, family and good health, are consistent with the values of most people. My future career as a pediatric nurse and practitioner not only upholds these two values, but gives me the unparalleled fulfillment of helping youth to live healthy lives so they too can become the nurses, doctors, engineers, teachers, and philanthropists of the coming generation.

Proudest Moment: When I first learned that my little brother, Jack would be the fourth sibling in my family to attend the University of Washington and to have that opportunity to once again study together at the same school!

Thesis: E-cigarettes in the Greek Community: Identity, Health Perceptions, and a Vaping Culture

I am so grateful for my time at the University of Washington. I have met some of the most incredibly, inspiring individuals, and I am honored to have studied alongside them. When I first came to the University of Washington, I was unsure of my path—I just knew that at end of the day that I wanted to help people. After a few quarters, this eventually led me to my first medical anthropology course: Anthropology and International Health, which guided me to my passion of studying health care. Since then, I have been lucky to have been able to take courses that have explored the social, cultural, and biological factors that have influenced health and the systems related to it and showed me a future career in working towards creating greater access to healthcare, a human right. Moreover, these courses inspired me to apply for departmental honors, allowing me to conduct independent research studying the impact of e-cigarettes in the Greek Community.

I was inspired to study French by recommendation from a professor. Studying French has been one of the most difficult and rewarding endeavors of my undergraduate career. For the first time, I was forced to contend with several of my own shortcomings as a student and challenged me to learn new studying methods. Through this department, I was provided the opportunity to study abroad in Paris and further develop my linguistic skills. I am so grateful for the professors and students from that department who have continually supported me and helped me grow to be a better student and person.

Outside of my coursework, I was fortunate to become involved early on at the University. I joined a sorority and made life-long friends. I gained valuable exposure working as a Laboratory Assistant for Pallanck Lab in Genome Sciences. I worked as a Research Assistant for Professor Alex Hill in a biological anthropology project. I interned at the Borgen Project and helped advocate for poverty-reduction legislation. I also volunteered at the East African Community Services and worked with refugee families helping tutor their children.

These experiences in and out of the classroom have helped shape my perspective on life. I hope to one day help create a better, more equitable world. After graduation, I will begin working as research associate studying health disparities in lung cancer screenings and access in the Pacific Northwest. Eventually, I plan to go to graduate school for Public Health to receive a Master’s and hopefully a Ph.D. in Health Services.

Proudest Moment: Presented at UW Research Symposium & Undergraduate research presentation at Stanford University

Thesis: Gender Effect on Defined Contribution Pension Plans : Evidence from SIPP Synthetic Beta

judyz1995@gmail.com

Greetings everyone!

I am very honored to part of this community! I am interested in health policy evaluations and especially those concerning the marginalized population. I wanted to bring voices to the youth, elderly and diverse ethnic groups concerning health issues. Research has given me the opportunity to explore these questions. I love to learn about the global aspect of health policy and the interdisciplinary aspects of the field ( such as behavioral studies, sociology, law etc.) I will continue pursuing this passion of mine during graduate school at Johns Hopkins University.
Storytelling has been a huge part of my experiences at University of Washington, I am proud to be part of a leadership cohort where I've learnt so much from one another, I am very grateful to all my friends ,mentors, and my family who encouraged me to take initiative and step outside my comfort zone. It has been an amazing journey! I love how photography can tell stories and I have made portfolios focused on urban life of Seattle, I will continue on my hobby in photography, creating more portfolios and keep on being adventurous! I also have a strong interest in poetry and I was super excited to get a published book along with my classmates.

Proudest Moment: Receiving the email announcing that I'd been granted the Mary Gates Research Scholarship!

Thesis: 'Can I Count on You?' Infants' Expectations of Prosocial Behavior Across Contexts

My Website aarti.bodas@gmail.com

Four years ago as a freshman, I could have never imagined how fulfilling my experience at the UW would be. I never would have guessed that I'd get to do Developmental Psychology research involving infants, that I'd win a research scholarship or that I'd end up getting a full ride to grad school! And above all else, I never imagined having as strong of a support network as I do, because of which I was able to accomplish so many things. The most important lesson that I learned during my time at the UW was to make the most of every experience, and in doing so to be persistent and ambitious, and that is what I carry with me moving forward.

Proudest Moment: My experience as a Sociology Honors student and working closely with my mentor Professor Edgar Kiser and Professor Sarah Quinn, the director of Sociology honors program, surely prepared me for the rigors of the Ph.D. program.

Thesis: Making and Transcending Boundaries: The Effect of Rituals on Interethnic Relations

raminj@uw.edu

I am Azerbaijani, a divided nation by geopolitical borders and denied contact during the Soviet era. As a member of an ethnic minority in Iran, I have experienced multiple forms of inequality and oppression. While banning our mother language, the state deemed the Persian language and culture alone as authentically Iranian. I witnessed my relatives in Iran forced to emigrate from Azerbaijani populated provinces to find construction work in Persian areas. I eventually learned that Iran’s highest rate of emigration occurs in Azerbaijani-populated provinces. These and other social and institutionalized injustices led me to join the Azerbaijani anti-racist movement in order to advocate Azerbaijani cultural rights and oppose discriminatory economic and environmental policies of the state.
My personal history, though unique in many respects, unfolded in the context of social, economic, and political conditions that exist in many societies. I come from an ethnic minority in Iran humiliated for their accent when speaking Persian and subjected to multiple forms of discrimination designed to silence them. It has meant everything to me to pursue my studies in this country, unfettered by discrimination and persecution for my ideas or my refugee status. Coming to the US allows me to pursue an academic career, but I also see it as an opportunity to enrich our understanding of and give voice to various minority groups (e.g., ethnic, gender, racial) that have also been silenced. Motivated by the goal of achieving a just and inclusive society, I studied in the Department of Sociology.
Within two months of arriving in the United States, I attended Green River College and learned especially from my mentors Professor Carlos Adams and Professor Brad Johnson. My experience as a Sociology Honors student and working closely with my mentor Professor Edgar Kiser and Professor Sarah Quinn, the director of Sociology honors program, surely prepared me for the rigors of the Ph.D. program. This fall, I am coming back to UW as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology. I am deeply indebted to my mentors in both schools, my family, and my friends for their support along the way.

Proudest Moment: Finishing the Russian language series

Thesis: Information Operations in Action: Russian Trolls and Black Lives Matter on Twitter

Coming from Texas, I had no idea what to expect from both UW and Seattle, but after four years I have found my academic passions and a great community! I learned Russian, studied abroad in Moldova and Greenland, and discovered my passion for both cybersecurity and climate change. Developing and writing my honors thesis on disinformation was perhaps one of the most intellectually challenging things I did during my time at UW, but it is something I'm incredibly proud of completing. During my time at UW, I researched for the UNFPA and Microsoft, worked as a writing tutor at the POL S/JSIS/LSJ writing center, and served as a mentor to international students. Even though studying at UW was often challenging, I am sad to be leaving the campus and incredibly glad I chose to make Seattle my home.

Proudest Moment: Presenting my thesis to both a performing arts audience and an education/ecology audience at the Mary Gates Research Symposium. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this work, I witnessed how people on both sides were able to see their disciplines in a new light--and envision the potential for this type of work to really make an impact through application to an array of disciplines.

Thesis: Environmental Dance: Unearthing How Dance Can Advance the Environmental Movement

madison.r.bristol@gmail.com

Madison Rose Bristol is graduating this summer with degrees in Environmental Science and Terrestrial Resource Management (BS, Honors), Dance (BA, Honors), and Marine Biology (minor). In retrospect, these past four years have been her joy because she has been able to pursue her passion for environmental justice in tandem with being actively involved in the UW and Seattle dance communities. Madison has performed in 17 UW associated shows, has choreographed 8 pieces within the UW Dance Department and for the Seattle International Dance Festival, and has taught at local dance studios. On the environmental science side, Madison has explored a wide range of social and biophysical sciences during her undergraduate experience. For one summer, during a class on marine birds and mammals at Friday Harbor Labs, she conducted field research on the distribution and behavior of shorebirds at Argyle Lagoon, San Juan Island. This class reaffirmed her love for coastal organisms and environments, but also helped guide her in the direction of more anthropocentric work. She proceeded to teach and then become a site lead for the Pipeline Project's Environmental Alternative Spring Break Program, where she traveled to Oroville in Eastern Washington for two years in a row. Teaching environmental science to these middle schoolers made her want to incorporate community-based work into her professional career. This in some ways became a reality for her when she became an Oregon Sea Grant Summer Scholar in June 2018. She was placed with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's Marine Reserves Program. Madison spent the summer assessing the socioeconomic impacts of marine reserves implementation through direct, one-on-one conversations with commercial and charter fishermen. This experience set her up with the skills to pursue further human dimensions research, and to envision herself as someone who could bridge understanding between communities in the future in the pursuance of environmental action.

During her senior thesis, Madison was driven by her curiosity about what could happen when her two passions collided. At first, she used choreography as her outlet, creating works implicitly and explicitly about the human response to environmental degradation. However, she also wanted to connect with and learn from a small community of emerging movement artists in Seattle who were using dance as a means to connect people emotionally to environmental issues. As a result, she conducted interdepartmental research on the multiplicity of ways in which dance can contribute to the environmental movement. Now at the end of her capstone experience, it has been entirely fulfilling for her to see how members of the Seattle dance community have been employing dance--a practice embedded in community, empathy, social connection, and alternate modes of communication--to compel environmental action. Be that through movement healing sessions to transform eco-anxiety into action steps, movement fundraisers, visceral dance performances, or sustainability through the arts, these people are entrepreneuring novel ways of evoking emotion to invoke action.

On the near horizon, Madison will be traveling to Taiwan to study environmental and social resilience, and after her travels she hopes to engage in political activism, dance projects that are environmentally and socially relevant, and work for environmental groups. She will be returning to school in the next year or so--perhaps in pursuance of a dual Master's through the Evans School of Public Policy and the School of Marine and Environmental Affairs-- to study environmental policy. With this professional education, she hopes to achieve her goal of leading societal change through creative and innovative management approaches and community-based engagement.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest memories is working with high school students on college admission through the Pipeline Project.

I recently graduated from the University of Washington magna cum laude with a degree in English. I'm currently pursuing a Masters in Teaching at the UW with a Secondary English Language Arts Endorsement, and I hope to become a high school English teacher in the Seattle area.

Proudest Moment: Completing my 9 month long capstone project and finding an amazing team of support throughout my journey at UW.

Thesis: Utilizing Technology for Interpretive Materials in Urban Parks (Friends of Discovery Park)

pakgina96@yahoo.com

I'm entirely grateful for my experience at the University of Washington. I have learned so much about how to think critically and work with different groups of people on a variety of projects, while also balancing work and a social life. I'm so passionate about the environment, sustainability and building community! I cannot wait to use these skills I have gained through my undergraduate experience to make an impact on the world, no matter how small or large!

Proudest Moment: Organizing the statistics directed reading program

Thesis: Identification and Estimation of Direct Causal Effects

Hi I'm Emily and I love statistics! During my time at UW, I have worked as a tutor in the statistics study center, advocated for women in STEM, and was chosen as one of the Husky 100. My experiences in WAMM, as a research fellow at NOAA, and more inspired me to co-found the statistics directed reading program with the aim of getting students from all backgrounds involved in statistics. I am excited and grateful to begin the next chapter in my story as I pursue a PhD in Statistics at UC Berkeley.

Proudest Moment: Receiving the Mary Gates Research Scholarship.

After transferring from UCLA in my freshman year, I have never once regretted my choice to return to my hometown and to UW. I have been very fortunate to have been afforded a number of monumental opportunities during my time as a student; I became a Mary Gates scholar in spring 2017, I studied abroad in San Sebastián, Spain in summer 2017 to complete my Spanish minor, and I have worked for two years at the Kevin King Lab in the UW Psychology Department. Through this lab, I developed and completed my departmental honors project, entitled “Impulsive Behavior as a Strategic Coping Response to Stress and Negative Mood”. These accomplishments did not come without sacrifice; I worked three jobs to support myself through my classwork and my various interests. These collective experiences motivated me to finish classes two quarters ahead of my planned graduation and move on to work full time at Northwest Neuropsychology Learning and Behavior Services, where I hold the title of Psychometrist and Behavioral/Educational Consultant. This fall, I look forward to continuing with this clinical position as well as beginning coursework for my master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at Seattle University. I would like to extend my deep gratitude to my mentors, including Dr. Kevin King and Madison Feil, as well as to my friends and family for supporting me throughout my undergraduate career.

Proudest Moment: Rushing the field after beating Stanford at Husky Stadium my sophomore year.

My interests are soccer, traveling, and going to new restaurants with my friends.

Proudest Moment: I studied abroad in Peru in Summer 2019 with a really great group of people. We worked hard on our research projects in the Amazon rainforest and had a lot of fun doing it. I'll never forget that experience and the community I got to be a part of.

I took a lot of interesting classes and did a lot of interesting research. I was involved in leadership, several RSOs, and I studied abroad. I'm particularly interested in ecology, ethics, and the intersection between them.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW was the completion of my senior thesis.

Thesis: Pet Perspectives: The Role of Companion Animals in Modern British Literature

I will soon be studying Czech during my MA at the University of Michigan.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments at the UW was receiving the Foreign Language Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship through the Ellison Center for Russian and Eastern European Studies in 2018.

Thesis: "The Development of Question Particles in Estonian Polar Questions," "Far From Silent: The Emergence of Tintinabulli in the Film Music of Arvo Pärt"

Aside from my parents of course, I am most thankful to my many mentors and peers at the University of Washington, for asking me the right questions and giving me a model for how to live a good life.
"The student must remain true to himself. At the end of the day, everybody has to rescue himself by whatever means he can." - Arvo Pärt

Proudest Moment: Participating in a Study Abroad program in León, Spain.

Thesis: The Communication of Families of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

I am 22 years old and ecstatic to have completed my undergraduate education. I will be moving on to put my Communication degree to work in the healthcare industry, starting in Olympia, WA. One of my main interests is driving a racecar all across Washington State, which I have been doing for over 12 years. I am thankful for my time at UW and proud to have completed a Thesis for my departmental honors study.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments at UW was back to my freshmen year when I took the public speaking class and did my final speech at the red square. Finding my voice as an international student in a big American college made me reflect on how much I seek for a platform to speak on topics that stand out to me and advocate for the community I care about.

Thesis: Exploring the role of peer mentorship in acculturation among international stduents

My Website

Jenel Li was born in Tokyo, Japan and raised in Beiijng, China. Growing up, Jenel had learned and spoke three distinct languages by experiencing three different education systems. Being a global news anchor was her childhood dream.

Jenel graduated from the University of Washington in 2019 with a Bachelor degree in communication. With her passion in interpersonal communication, cultural exchange, and social justice, she competed her departmental honors by doing her research on the role of peer mentorship in acculturation among international students. Jenel is pursuing her master degree in social work and business administration at the Columbia University. She is driven to grow as a communication professional who is capable of utilizing languages effectively to present herself, as well as being the voice of others, for a variety of purposes.

Jenel is passionate about leadership development and storytelling. Jenel is a hiring chair at the Associated Student of University of Washington as well as the vice president of the International Student Mentorship Program. She is dedicated to serving the communities in which she lives and works.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments at UW was receiving an offer to be a Post-Bachelor Fellow at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). This program will enable me in the next few years to continue my work in global health research and pursue a fully-funded MPH at UW.

During my time at UW, I was able to pursue a double degree in Public Health-Global Health and Economics. By being able to take courses in both these majors, I was able to explore my interests in global health economics and the crucial intersection between financial stability and health. As an undergraduate, I was able to participate in a study abroad program through the School for International Training (SIT) in India focusing on public health, gender equality, and community-based initiatives. For the past year, I was an Undergraduate Research Assistant on the Cost Effectiveness team at the UW Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), where I have also accepted a Post-Bachelor Fellowship.

Proudest Moment: Completing my Honors Thesis

Thesis: The Road to the Ballot Box: A discussion of how quality of infrastructure effects elections

bkrben@gmail.com

I'm a jazz bassist. I have substantially lost 70+ pounds since the end of my freshmen year. I love public transportation. I currently am heading towards a career in public policy: I'm an admitted student to the Evans School of Public Policy and I work for the Ruckelshaus Center for Public Policy.

Proudest Moment: Seeing the public release of the Washington Legislative Explorer, a database project that was the culmination of more than a year of hard (and often arduous) work.

Thesis: Judicial Prescience: How Judges Incorporate Expectations in Grants for Certiorari

My Website

When I got to UW, I was going to be attending my third college; after receiving an A.S. from North Idaho College and transferring from the University of Oklahoma, my curiosity always got the better of me and I could never settle on a field. Nonetheless, I was determined and the faculty, resources, and opportunities at UW allowed me to grow into my passion. Over the last three years, I was able to complete a research fellowship, the political science honors program, write two independent research papers, and produce a web database to help citizens educate themselves on the activities of the Washington state legislature. Even more fulfilling are the bonds to friends, faculty, and a community of scholars.

I am taking my next step in the fall as I start a Ph.D. in Politics at Princeton, where I was honored with a Centennial Fellowship. To my friends, family, professors, and all those who supported me -- thank you and Go Dawgs!

Proudest Moment: The moment I finally turned in my English thesis!

Thesis: Imaginary Equality, Romance, and Sex: Teenage Girls and Boys’ Love Literature in China

shirley.b.ouyang@gmail.com

I am an international student from Changsha, China. I triple majored in English, Math, and Philosophy. UW not only offers a great environment for learning and research but also many many many other opportunities. I love to see the world and understand the world from different perspectives, so I am very grateful for the wonderful study abroad opportunities at UW, allowing me to study abroad four times--to England, Italy, Spain, and Ecuador. In the future, I will continue to get to know and to embrace the diversities and differences that make our world complex and colorful.

Proudest Moment: When I found out that Ghana's Ministry of Energy adopted two policy recommendations from my undergrad Donald C. Hellmann Task Force Program 2020 report on Sub-Saharan Africa renewable energies into the country's new Draft National Energy Policy!

I am a graduating senior and a first-generation college student. One of my favorite experiences at UW was traveling to Brazil through the FLAS fellowship. With that experience, I confirmed how much I love learning languages and engaging with people from cultures different than mine. I'm excited to keep learning and growing in the areas of literature and diplomacy.

I will always be grateful for being part of the Jackson School of International Studies and the Spanish Department and for the amazing friends and teachers that I met through my undergraduate studies.

Proudest Moment: Getting into my engineering major, and managing to keep my GPA high enough for Honors.

I'm an MSE graduate who has a lot of love for semiconductors and quantum materials.

Proudest Moment: Being selected to represent the UW at the Emory Global Health Case Competition in Atlanta, GA

maxrumaner@gmail.com

Born in San Francisco, raised in Portland, OR, and now living in Seattle, I am currently attending the University of Washington, set to graduate with a degree in Biomedical Engineering. I am passionate about engineering and design with the goal to enter the biotech industry as a product development engineer. My research and work experiences have given me the incredible opportunity to see two sides of product development and develop extensive skills and knowledge of both. I am eager to use my abilities to make an impact on an engineering team and improve lives around the world.

Proudest Moment: My entire college career has been a moment of pride for me, my mother always dreamed of seeing me attending UW as a continuation of her legacy, but never got the chance. This was because she passed away my junior year of high school from cancer. I spent a great deal of time in mourning but once I saw a future at UW I knew I had to make her dream a reality. Now that it's 2018 and my graduation year, I truly feel like I’ve make her proud as well as myself.

Thesis: The Effects of Pond-Leveler Devices on Salmon Migration through Restored Riverine Beaver Pond Complexes

Born and raised on Lake Chelan, Washington, I followed in my mother’s footsteps and became a UW student, pursuing a degree in Natural and Environmental Resource Management. Since then I have accomplished a great deal, from my thesis looking at salmon migration sponsored by King County, to my role in refounding Acacia Fraternity, I have seen a lot of success at UW. This can be greatly attested to the brilliant staff here, along with the support of my friends and family over these 4 years. I plan to use my newfound understanding and knowledge to pursue a career in resource conservation, beginning with a seasonal job with the Forest Service this summer in the eastern Cascades and continuing with a trip to Bali, Indonesia to volunteer in turtle conservation. With the foundation UW has helped me lay I look forward to the rest of my life, continuing my education with my every pursuit.

Proudest Moment: I am proud that I used my time at UW to raise awareness about the ongoing crisis in Venezuela through my artwork, and had the freedom to explore a wide range of mediums finding ways to improve and innovate my work and its powerful message.

I started my path in the Arts in my country of origin, Venezuela, and I could not be more excited to finish my degree in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts at UW. Although Venezuela is no longer my home it is still my main source of inspiration. I am looking forward to use the skills I learned during my time at UW to keep creating meaningful art outside of the classroom.

Proudest Moment: Completing my thesis and graduating with honors

Thesis: An Evaluation of an Automatically Generated Grammar of Ik

I am most interested in studying computational linguistics and historical linguistics. I found linguistics accidentally when I decided to take an intro course as an elective in my freshman year. I realized I liked it so much that I switched majors the next quarter. I am also interested in history, astronomy, evolution and computer science. I got to study abroad in Rome this past year and it was one of my favorite experiences at UW. After graduation, I am looking forward to returning to UW for a master's program in computational linguistics.

Proudest Moment: Completeing undergraduate research and presenting my capstone at the research syposium.

Thesis: Black Bear Occupancy Modeling in Washington State

When I'm not studying, I make time to read and run everyday. I race trail and ultramarathons competitively and make sure I always find time to prioritize my passions outside of school.

Proudest Moment: My second-to-last quarter here at UW, I wrote a paper in Jeffery Knight's honors seminar about Shakespeare's so-called "horse sonnets." I have always struggled with research papers, and I never felt like I could read or understand Shakespeare. This turned into the first research paper I felt came fully, loudly, and entirely from own voice, and it was also the first time I realized, after a quarter of careful study, I could read Shakespeare. I have never felt such pride over a research paper before, and since writing it, I have felt like an entire realm of writing has opened up to me.

Thesis: Plathology: Plath, a Piece in the Puzzle of American Women’s Poetry Tradition

rileygraceborden@aol.com

Hello all! My name is Riley Grace, and after graduating with my two year degree at Skagit Valley Community College, I have been at the UW now for two wonderful, challenging, jam-packed years. Where do I begin to describe this journey? I think I must have told 50 people during my first few weeks at UW how ridiculously joyful I felt every morning to wake up as a student at this university. I had spent months prior researching clubs and groups at UW and planning how I would use every second of my two years. The opportunities at UW ended up being as endless and wide as I hoped and planned for. Now, multiple clubs tried and joined, new people met and befriended, final papers and exams completed later, I feel just as fortunate and thankful. From the professors who dedicated hours to the development of my writing and voice, to engaging classes, to a consciously diverse curriculum, I have most positively been shaped by my experiences as an English major, and I extend my thanks to every individual in the department and across the humanities who made my experience possible. Post graduation, I am looking forward to spending my next three years at UW's law school!

Proudest Moment: Designing an XBOX controller so that it doesn't require fine motor control to operate. The adapted controller has large buttons and joysticks, making it more accessible for people of all abillities. Seeing it in use was my proudest moment. This was possible thanks to a Bioengineering Honors team, and later the RSO HuskyADAPT.

Thesis: Design of a System to Study Endothelial Cell Adaptation in Response to Physiological Cues In Vitro (Bioengineering Capstone Final Report)

AlexanderNovok98@gmail.com

I am an engineer, a scientist, and an advocate. The University of Washington has given me a priceless opportunity to learn while solving real, tangible problems. In research in the Zheng Lab I designed a system to control pressure and flow across blood vessels "in a Petri dish". This work was recognized by the Levinson Emerging Scholars program and presented at the Mary Gates Research Symposium (see "Design and Engineering of Open Source Hardware for Pressure Regulation in the Study of Vascular Processes" and "Venous to Arterial Endothelial Adaptation in Response to Pressure and Flow in Vitro").

Through the Bioengineering Departmental Honors program and the RSO HuskyADAPT I was part of the team that organized the first Holiday Toy Hack (see here https://bioe.uw.edu/bioengineering-outreach-and-honors-team-adapts-toys-for-children-with-disabilities-at-holiday-toy-hack-event/ and here https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/toy-hackers-help-kids-with-disabilities/367898045). I went on to organize a new team, and we worked together to adapt an XBOX controller for the needs of a local family.

I have interned at Takeda Pharmaceuticals and Fractal Therapeutics, exploring new approaches to cancer treatment through computational modeling.

Finally, I have had the honor to be elected as an ASUW student senator. In this role I advocated for ensuring that Early Entrance students like myself have equal access to research opportunities (https://depts.washington.edu/asuwsen/oro/#!LegislationView/id=183233) and for housing affordability in the City of Seattle (See here https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/seattle/could-apartments-soon-go-to-the-highest-bidder-in-seattle/281-523256324 and https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-may-ban-rent-bidding-websites/).

In all of these roles, I have had the opportunity to work with wonderful teams of students, instructors and stakeholders. Thank you to all the mentors, peers and advisors who have made this experience possible. The collaborative environment, and the opportunity to make a tangible impact that benefits others are my favorite things about the university.

I plan to continue my growth in medical research and development in biomedical industry, to discover cures and improve treatments.

Proudest Moment: Studying abroad and meeting lifelong friends

Thesis: Evaluation of Maasai-Water Relationships in a Changing Landscape: A Case Study of Former Kimana Group Ranch

As an Environmental Science major, I started at UW with an interest in protecting our environment and wildlife, and after these four, short years that interest has grown into a dedication for the decolonization of conservation practices and the inclusion of communities in environmental decision-making. I worked in the SEFS advising department, interned at King County for three summers, studied in Kenya, volunteered, danced in two dance departments shows, and made a lot of good friends and memories along the way.

I am so grateful for my time here and my support system. I couldn't have done it without them. I hope to effect positive change and work towards a more sustainable future, as well as hike, sew, and drink lots of tea.

Proudest Moment: Finding my best friends at Rainy Dawg, completing my thesis, and graduating Magna Cum Laude!

Thesis: "We Gon' See the Future First": Subjection, Melancholy, and Queer Utopian Aesthetics in Frank Ocean's Blonde

My Website samwooley@comcast.net

Originally from Edmonds, Washington, I transferred to the UW my sophomore year after a short stint at Occidental College in Los Angeles. I quickly declared my English major after taking Jessica Burstein's captivating course on Modern and Postmodern Literature, where I fell in love with Oscar Wilde and Virginia Woolf. In my senior year, I completed the English Honors program, which allowed me to more closely explore my interest in popular media and its relation to temporality and identity. Specifically, I explored Frank Ocean's recent album Blonde and the future-oriented queer utopian aesthetic I understood it to be articulating. Outside of school, I have been involved with Rainy Dawg Radio since my first quarter on campus. That Fall, I applied to be a volunteer DJ at the student-run radio station. I ended up DJing there for two years, and this most recent year, I was able to serve as the station's Music Director. Rainy Dawg was a wonderful experience for me, allowing me to ground myself in a community within this massive campus. My future plans are currently undecided: in the next year, I hope to travel, write, and keep making rent, and in the long-term future I aim to pursue a career in either academia, high school education, literary publishing, or public radio, or perhaps some combination of these.

Proudest Moment: Being a member of the Washington Hyperloop team

sev.sando@gmail.com

When I moved to Seattle from Canada in my senior year of high school, I didn't know what an SAT was, I didn't know which universities were good, and I was desperate to develop a new social group and learn how to navigate this new country of mine. All I did know was that I wanted to learn about airplanes.

I'll be honest, after four years of engineering school I am STILL blown away by airplanes. HOW DO THESE THINGS EVEN FLY?! I joined this department to uncover the mystery of flight and I am coming out even more intrigued, and even more enthused. I have worked in the Quantitative Flow Visualization lab for two years, run wind tunnel tests, built a rocket for the Hyperloop team, and studied aviation in France one summer. I think I like planes more than the average bear...

Technical stuff aside, one of the things I have enjoyed most about my time at UW has been sharing my experiences with younger students. I have been a College of Engineering Peer Mentor, and I have organized and participated in countless elementary school science fairs as the Outreach Coordinator for UW's chapter of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. This major and this department are rooted in passion, and I found profound satisfaction in sharing that passion with the next generation of engineers.

While I have experienced some incredible things in my four years here, the most valuable things I gained were the outstanding friends I met. I learned a deep appreciation for putting myself in a positive and supportive environment, and these lifelong friends I met who create that for me are worth more than any degree.

I grew and learned immeasurably at UW, and I am incredibly appreciative for my time here. It has prepared me for an exciting future and I can't wait for what is to come.

Proudest Moment: Holding a baby octopus caught in a bottom trawl during a research cruise on the RV Rachel Carson!

Thesis: The Effects of Increased Salinity on the Behavior and Survival of Juvenile Dungeness Crab (Cancer magister): Implications for the Control of Burrowing Shrimp in Willapa Bay, Washington

As a SAFS major, you might guess I love just about anything that has to do with water or the things that live in in, and you would be correct! Some of my favorite activities include swimming, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, paddle boarding, fishing, hiking, and spending time outdoors with my family and friends. In my free time, I also love to read, ride horses, dance, hang out with my pets, cook, and bake.

I worked throughout my time at UW at the Burke Museum Fish Collection, Biology Department Field Trip Program, and the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team. With these organizations I was able to gain valuable experience and connections, and still managed to maintain a high GPA and consistently receive awards and recognition from my School and College.

I am also a first generation college student, and as the first in my family to graduate from a University, I am especially proud to say that I was able to fully fund my higher education with the help of contributions from generous scholarship donors. I am so thankful to all those who have supported me on my pursuit for education, and will forever treasure my UW family and memories!

Proudest Moment: Kicking off my last year as a dawg by running the Seattle Marathon!

Thesis: Stress activates the dynorphin/kappa opioid receptor system in the prefrontal cortex to disrupt cognition

sannecasello@gmail.com

I'm so grateful to have immersed myself in my two passions, neuroscience and art history, during my time at the University of Washington. Studying abroad in Florence summer quarter of my freshman year ignited my love for art history and inspired me to pursue a minor. The opportunity to take these classes bestowed a breadth of knowledge I wouldn't have otherwise obtained and have been some of the most enlightening classes I've taken at the UW - many thanks to the lovely professors of the Art History department!

In academic contrast, the opportunity to be a member of the Chavkin Lab the past four years has shaped my undergraduate experience. Neuroscience has always been one of my passions, but my positive experience in the Chavkin Lab has solidified my desire to pursue Neuroscience as a career. The ability to develop as a neuroscience researcher, influenced by such positive mentors, is why I was able to accept a position at the National Institutes of Health in Washington D.C. to participate in research on psychiatric disease before applying to graduate school.

Ultimately, I'm beyond thankful for the friendships I've fostered during undergrad. From the neuroganglia to 4727, I can't imagine undergrad without you. Thanks for the mems University of Washington & go dawgs!!!

Proudest Moment: The best moment was getting into my major, the Architecture school became a second home!

Thesis: Soak in the Rain: Designing for Our Climate by Engaging the Senses

Four years seemed to go by in four seconds. Over the past several years I have enjoyed staying involved at UW. I started my freshman and sophomore year in leadership for HFS, participating in Hall Council and eventually the Residential Programming Board. After getting into my major I participated in the student led groups, AIAS, The CBE Student Council, Happy Hour Committee, and ASUW Achitectural Commission Board. I met life long friends in my architecture studios and learned a lot within my design classes. In 2019 I was able to be apart of the Furniture Design studio and entered my finished piece in the Interior Designers of Idaho Chair Affair (a furniture competition for students and professionals in Boise) and won Best Functional Design. I also was able to do independent research throughout 2019 and presented at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. To finish off my time at UW I was recently awarded along with another classmate the "Faculty Award for Scholarship and Leadership". It was a long journey but I couldn't have done it without the support of friends, my professors and advisors, family, and coffee.

Proudest Moment: When I presented at the undergraduate research symposium. That was the moment where I really felt like all the work I was doing for my thesis had really come together. I also had the opportunity to present in front of my friends and really feel proud of the work I had done.

Thesis: Under-representations of Climate Change in the Syrian Civil War

My Website anirudhruw@gmail.com

Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, I come from a family of Huskies. My sister graduated from the UW a few years before me and I already knew way before college applications had even started that I wanted to be a Husky too. I love spending time at the IMA, hanging out with friends at the HUB, and getting involved with RSOs like the Hiking Club or Indian Student Association. I am finishing up my degree in Geography, and I'm also studying design on the side. These past 4 years have been transformational and I can't wait for what the future has in store!

Proudest Moment: when my department annonced my name as a honor student

i1980198@uw.edu

I am UW student in Seattle campus, and I studied double major. I am immigrant from Iraq, I came in June 2012. I am mother for three kids. I lived hard life with more war, stresses, and lots of responsibilities, but all of that give me motivation to continue seeking better life and achieving my goals. I started to study at as soon as I came to the US. I am working in integrative brain research at Seattle Children Hospital Research institute to find a cure for diseases that associated with the motion deficit. This is just part of my journey, my goal is to study medical school and be a neurosurgeon and researcher at the same time to involve in treatment of untreated diseases, such as Parkinson's diseases and multiple sclerosis. Even though, I had hard life and lots of responsibilities, I still go forward to achieve my goals and serve the community, to prove to people who surrounded me that being mother is not a barrier to achieve your dream and living hard life should not stress you but it can be good motivation to push you forward and be what you like to be.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment would be when I was given the opportunity to present my research and findings to my peers at the Mary Gates Undergraduate Research Symposium. Not only was it great to be able to share my work with others, but it was amazing to hear about all the other incredible work my peers have been doing.

Thesis: Using Resting-State Functional Connectivity to Detect Uncomplicated Mild Traumatic Brain Injury in U.S. Military Populations

I'd like to thank UW, Dr. Tara Madhyastha, Dr. Christine Mac Donal, Dr. Chantel Prat, and many others for everything they have done to help me along my journey here at the university. I look forward to applying everything I've learned in psychology, statistics, and computer science in industry.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest memories at UW was having the opportunity to share my passion for bioengineering with other students through my position as a TA!

Thesis: Regulating chimeric γc cytokine receptor expression through CRISPR/Cas9-mediated targeted integration

Hi, I'm Piper! It has been an amazing four years at UW, and I'm so grateful for the many amazing experiences I've had here. It was a pleasure learning alongside so many brilliant students and having the chance to explore my passions through classes, volunteering, and research. I am excited to spend the next couple years working before heading to grad school or medical school! Thank you to my professors, friends, and family for their never-ending support and encouragement in the pursuit of my dreams.

Proudest Moment: Cutting the ribbon on a project that our studio designed and built for Nathan Hale High School!

Thesis: No building is an island: the role of design in sustainability, stewardship, and culture

My Website

When I was accepted to UW, I wasn't sure which direction I was going to go - I decided to give architecture a shot as a compromise between science, art, research and action. Four years later, I have found a passion for built environments and their role in a rapidly-changing world. UW has given me the opportunity to hone an interest into a career path, while staying true to my values - balancing technical as well as theoretical aspects of scholarship and practice. I use the skills the Department of Architecture has given me every day, as I continue to negotiate between research and industry for sustainable future cities.

It takes a village - polishing my passion for architecture would not have been possible without my mentors and colleagues, who challenged me to think farther, broader, and deeper in every studio. I am extremely grateful to Kate SImonen, Gundula Proksch, Rob Peña, Jen Dee and Kristian Næsby for their guidance, patience and optimism - and to my classmates and friends for always lending their ears, advice, kindness and various drafting/modeling supplies that I forgot to bring.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments while at UW was being accepted into the School of Nursing.

Thesis: Sleep in Hospitalized Patients (SHOP): Bedtime Routine in the Psychiatric and Behavioral Medicine Unit at Seattle Children's Hospital

In my time at UW, I was involved in Dance Marathon at the University of Washington. This on campus organization raises money for the Uncompensated Care Fund at Seattle Children's Hospital. This year we raised over $70,000! I also volunteered at UWMC for three years. In addition, I worked at UWMC as a Nursing Technician on the Medical/Oncology ICU. All of this experience tied into my passion for research and the design of my project!

Proudest Moment: Getting accepted to my dream summer research program and then an amazing Ph.D. program!

Thesis: The spectrum of the adjacency operator on graphs

I am so honored and happy to be graduating from a university with such great traditions and history as the University of Washington! This fall, I begin a Ph.D. program in applied and computational math, for which UW has excellently prepared me. During my time here, I have had the opportunity to get involved in undergraduate research, obtained a life-changing summer research position, graded coursework in the math department, and met so many brilliant and inspiring mathematicians. Uncountable thanks to all of my mentors – I couldn't have done this without you!

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW was submitting my two theses!

Thesis: "Engineering Reversibility within a Novel Hepatitis C Virus NS3a-Based Chemically-Inducible Dimerization System" (Biochemistry); "Sampling from Conditional Distributions Using Groebner Basis Theory" (Mathematics)

I participated chemical biology research with the Maly lab, and completed summer research fellowships at the University of Virginia and the University of California, Los Angeles. Additionally, I spent three years working as a peer tutor at the Instructional Center. In my free time, I enjoy watching movies, exploring the city and listening to live music. I'm excited to be continuing my studies as a PhD candidate at Harvard University.

Proudest Moment: I completed my economics honors thesis.

Thesis: The Impacts of Universal Health Insurance on Educational Attainment: Evidence from the Seguro Popular Program in Mexico

My Website shhsu@cs.washington.edu

Please visit my website for more details about me.

Proudest Moment: Getting into departmental honors for both of my majors within a week!

Thesis: Evaluating technological tools to support environmental literacy, Correlating landslide susceptibility and risk using GIS and statistical methods

Being a student at the College of the Environment, I'm constantly amazed by the power of people and education in order to creatively solve environmental issues. For our society to be proactive in solving major environmental catastrophes like climate change, we need to be better science communicators, activists, and advocates for justice and equity. The University of Washington has introduced me to a variety of people, which has just given me the opportunity to mentor, teach, and learn fro and is just one step in being a leader and role-model in my community.

#GoDawgs

Proudest Moment: Actually graduating

Thesis: Engaging transfer voices An analysis of communication and information exchange between transfer students and university program

davigator@comcast.net

David is a transfer student from Seattle Central Community College. He was a reading tutor for the Washington Reading Corps at Solid Ground and a Middle School English Teaching Instructor in Foshan, China before enrolling at UW in January 2014. At UW, he was involved with various activities including as a Resident Adviser, Husky Leadership Initiative peer advisor, Unite UW facilitator, Dream Project mentor, First-Year Programs transfer ambassador, Office of Minorities and Diversity Student Advisory Board member, and a research fellow for the Center of Communication, Difference, and Equity (CCDE). This summer, he will be participating in a Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education (NASPA) National Undergraduate Fellowship Program internship at the University of Missouri, before becoming Unite UW Early Fall Start Program Leader. He hopes to continue advocating and supporting students who transfer and identity as underrepresented as he eventually pursues a Ph.D. in education.

Proudest Moment: Strangely enough, getting a 4.0 in a computer science class that I took to fill a general education requirement only because absolutely no other STEM classes worked with my schedule. I was terrified the entire quarter because it's so completely out of my comfort zone, but it all worked out!

Thesis: READING PREGNANCY AS LIMINALITY IN MODERNIST BRITISH FICTION

My Website tamarleveson@gmail.com

I was born and raised in Silicon Valley, and while the four years I've spent at UW have been a bit rainy, I wouldn't change it for anything. In addition to my studies, I have served for three years as a committee leader for UW Hillel, hosted a weekly radio show on Rainy Dawg with my friend Mary every week since winter quarter of freshman year, and interned at a local design magazine called GRAY. I hope to continue my studies in English literature in a master's program in the UK in the near future.

Proudest Moment: Making the Annual Dean's List three consecutive years in a row to graduate with departmental honors after being rejected by all seven engineering majors I applied for in the summer of 2015.

albertmeuse22@gmail.com

When I came to the University of Washington in 2012, I vaguely knew I wanted to be an engineer, but I didn't really carry out the type of self-reflection needed to truly understand what my motivations were. In the past years I have went through a lot of adversity, and have matured greatly. I have become much more inquisitive, and curious. Although I have learned a tremendous amount in my time at UW, I am significantly less presumptive than I used to be, as I am much more aware of just how little I know. My long meandering undergrad experience has culminated in a double major in Bioresource Science & Engineering, and Environmental Science & Resource Management, in addition to a minor in Chemistry. In these programs I have learned a great deal about chemical engineering and forestry, and I intend on applying this knowledge in a way that addresses this current climate crisis we find ourselves in. This past year, under Anthony Dichiara, I conducted research on how graphene sponges made from carbon nanomaterials can be used for water treatment. I have worked as a dispatcher for the US Forest Service, as a canvasser for Environment Washington, and as a process engineer for NORPAC.

Proudest Moment: When I stopped taking the math and science classes I hated and started embracing my passion for education. My educational experience at UW finally started to feel like I was doing everything right for myself.

Thesis: Japanese Incarceration: Intergenerational Communication of Trauma and Cross-Generational Effects of Incarceration on Sansei Generation as Seen Through Densho Interviews

I am passionate about educational equity, race relations, and actively engaging with social justice issues. I am grateful for the opportunity to write this honors thesis that not only illuminated how identity, trauma, and reclamation were interwoven, but also aided in deeply transforming my sense of self in relation to identity and research. I feel honored to have accepted an award for this thesis in the Communication department at UW during Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month and Mental Health Awareness month. I wouldn't have been able to accomplish this without the support of my adviser and all the other professors who guided me through the process and gave me abundant advice. I wish to continue actively serving the communities I come from through educational or community organizations, or working within schools. Outside of school, I love to binge crime procedural dramas, catch up on anime, discover new happy hours, and plan my next travel destination.

Proudest Moment: I mentored a student at UW through the EDUC 401 program. I was able to utilize many of the skills I have learned in my undergraduate education. The best part was seeing their personal growth and realizing I made a small difference!

My Website mackenziemprice@gmail.com

My name is Mackenzie and I am graduating June 2020! I transferred to UW from a small, private school and it was a hard transition. But I am so glad I made the choice to join the UW community. I found my family and friends as captain of the Alpine Ski Team, balancing schoolwork with long weekends traveling and skiing all over the Northwest. Academically, I am passionate about the importance of the humanities and public policy in regards to equity of education. I had multiple opportunities to work with students, both at the high school level and college level, getting real hands-on experience inside the classroom that I will take into my future as an educator. Through the Honors English Cohort, I co-created a website, Eco-Poetry Washington, that analyzes poems through an eco-critical lens and maps their location throughout Washington State. In addition, I worked closely with faculty to research the reconciliation of land use rights between the National Park and Indigenous Peoples in Alaska. I hope to bring these holistic experiences and knowledge to wherever I go next in life! Go Dawgs!

Proudest Moment: Working with my mentors and Principal Investigator on a scientific project and gaining hands on skills and experiences in biochemical research.

Thesis: Insights into the N-Terminal Region IXI Motif Binding Interactions of HSPB5

My experiences as a biochemistry major and in teaching Chem 142 students in quiz sections as part of STEM-Dawgs led me to appreciate the fact that knowledge must be shared and taught well to promote understanding. As president and founder of PreMedsUnited at UW, I built a community of pre-health students that support and motivate one for success. As a future physician, I aspire to continue my teaching and mentoring pursuits in medical school and beyond.

Some words of wisdom: Stay steadfast in your dreams and you will achieve them. Don’t perceive setbacks as failures, rather they are a part of your journey. You can’t have success without failure. Be sure to make the most out of your education, whether that is participating in extracurricular activities, tutoring students, or getting to know your professors during office hours. After all, getting an education is more than just reading books and taking exams, it is getting to know your colleagues and future co-workers to become the next generation of leaders and changemakers in your communities and for the world.

My interests include studying the Arabic language and cooking and baking a lot of different Middle Eastern food. I also love to travel, and a place I’ll never forget is visiting the ancient city of Babylon in Iraq during the Summer of 2019 (and yes, it was excruciatingly hot!).

Proudest Moment: I am proud to have served as the ASUW Pacific Islander Student Commission Director from 2016-2017 and to have been named a Husky 100.

Thesis: Precarious Histories: Legacy Workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands

I am the child of Filipino migrant contract workers to the CNMI and embody the culmination of my parents' sacrifices. My Husky Experience gave me a platform to find empowerment in my identity as a queer Filipinx born in the Northern Mariana Islands through opportunities that enabled me to apply my own story and my family's story in leadership and academia. My goal is to serve as an attorney for the people of the Marianas, especially migrant workers and Pacific Islanders marginalized by U.S. federal law and policies.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments has been when I represented UW at an international conference and had the opportunity to sharing my research.

Thesis: Winter under-ice patterns of greenhouse gases in lakes of interior Alaska

I have had moments of great joy in the last four years of UW. Not all my moments were as joyful as others but there were certain parts of my UW life that kept my spirits high against the coursework and winter weather of UW. Working in David Butman's lab pushed me out of multiple comfort zones and as a result gave me one of the most steady and consistent parts of my UW career. I have to thank UW Women's Rugby for giving me a community which turned into forever friends and best roommates. Lastly, I loved all of my ESRM classes and I have treasured this experience that started with an interest and grew into a passion making me not only a scientist but more of a steward of the Earth.

Proudest Moment: Making my parents proud has always been one of my life goals. And I am glad that I made it today!

Thesis: Understanding the Long-term Tidal Modulation on Methane Bubble Emission at Southern Hydrate Ridge using Acoustics

As a first-generation Malaysian student, I consider myself a privileged one to be given the opportunity to come this far to pursue my bachelor's degree. My UW experience was an adventure, from performing on stage as an actor and dancer, to co-leading FIUTS CulturalFest, the largest cultural event on campus, to field experiences in the mountains and the ocean, and finally indulging in mentoring and doing research. These community building, leadership, field and research experiences have made me who I am today. I have forged so many international friendships and learned so much from stories coming from different parts of the world. Looking forward, I will further pursue my passion for marine geology, specifically in the energy field. I will also continue to challenge myself with new perspectives and keep growing with the hope to contribute to the world one day.

Proudest Moment: Graduating from the UW architectural design program

Thesis: Lighting Design for Health and Happiness in Nordic Architecture

My Website wqchua@uw.edu

Hello! I am Wen, and I am an architectural design student. I love pretty things, running, playing the violin and eating croissants.

Proudest Moment: Completing my internship with Books to Prisoners.

Thesis: From Buyer Beware to Ending Exploitation Collaborative: The Nordic Model and Human Rights of Sex Workers in King County

I graduated in December of 2018 with a Bachelors' of Arts in Law, Societies and Justice. I focused my honors research on the violations of human rights perpetrated by the local government and prosecutors in Seattle and King County against women working in the sex trade, particularly through the use of pseudo-legalization. Since then, I've been working on preparing my thesis for publication and have been working as a residential rehabilitative counselor at an in-custody competency restoration center for those found incompetent to stand trial with Washington State Department of Social and Health Services.

I will be moving to Dallas this summer to begin attending Southern Methodist University School of Law. I will be working towards my juris doctor for the next three years and hope to work in civil liberties law in Texas after graduation and after taking the bar exam.

Proudest Moment: Organizing outreach visits to high schools to teach bioengineering to schools with diverse populations that have traditionally been underrepresented in the field of bioengineering.

Thesis: Classification of Alzheimer's Disease Patients using Resting State Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging-based Network Connectivity Analysis

hkredden3@gmail.com

Hello! My name is Hyae Won (Hannah) Redden and I am a senior graduating from the Department of Bioengineering and the Department of Biochemistry. I was born in Seoul, South Korea and immigrated to the U.S. when I was three years old, growing up first in Little Rock, Arkansas and later University Place, Washington, before starting school here in Seattle.

Throughout my time at UW, I have been fortunate to have taken part in so many transformative experiences through taking engaging courses, participating in extracurricular activities, and interacting with so many extraordinary people. Some of my most meaningful experiences include coordinating a reading program at Seattle Children's Hospital and the UW Neonatal Intensive Care Unit; receiving a Gilman Scholarship to study abroad in Nepal, where I was able to assess health technology needs in the OB/GYN department; coordinating a website for Science Explorers, a graduate student group that develops science lesson plans for elementary-aged students; serving as Outreach Chair for the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) at UW for the past 2 years; and being a part of the Department of Bioengineering Diversity Committee, where I was not only able to contribute to improving efforts to improve diverse outreach, but also reflect on inequalities that exist in society and in higher education and think critically about action items to address such issues. These experiences, in conjunction with my research and academic studies in biochemistry and bioengineering, have fueled both existing and new passions and I hope to take these perspectives with me as I pursue a career in healthcare.

In my free time, I enjoy bullet journaling, hand lettering, taking on miscellaneous arts and craft projects, reading (especially autobiographies and memoirs), and traveling. My favorite travel memories during my time as an undergrad include holding a newborn baby at an outreach center in Bolde, Nepal, working as a patisserie assistant in a tiny little town called Nitry in France, and learning more about my home country. After graduation, I hope to continue learning about different cultures in the communities around me as well as while traveling abroad.

And of course, I wouldn't be here today without all of the amazing people that have helped me along the way, so thank you to the amazing peers, professors, and mentors that have contributed to such a great undergrad experience! Also, I'd like to thank my family for all of the endless love and support!

Proudest Moment: Being apart of the Student Employee Leadership Board and representing UWild Adventures.

Thesis: Human-Wildlife Conflict in the Peruvian Amazon: How Community Engagement Can Change Wildlife Conservation

I always tell everyone that I joined PoE for the field trips. Everyone who knows me knows that what really drew me to Environmental Studies is my love of outdoor spaces. My time at UW has allowed me to a gain greater understanding of what privileges I have that allowed this love affair. The adventures I've had so far taught me that it is an opportunity to struggle and to pick myself back up both indoors and out. The accomplishments I'm most proud of are not those on paper but the impact I worked so hard to make on the people I worked for, young people, and my peers.

Proudest Moment: The proudest moment is being awarded the Mary Gates Scholarship for my research conducted at UW.

Thesis: A Biodegradable, Multifunctional Hydrogel as a Vascular Graft Sealant

My professional interests are studying physiology and biochemistry and trying to engineer low cost, reasonable, and effective solutions to problems that arise in the human body such that they can be treated successfully. This passion will hopefully lead me towards a career in medicine where I hope to contribute towards revolutionizing the way medicine is practiced. Participating in a translational research project for 3 years has sparked my interest in the field of research and how it is related to medicine. During my spare time I am interested in playing and watching basketball, cooking, and exercising.

Proudest Moment: Completing my individual capstone research project!

sarah.kneadler@gmail.com

I will be graduating from UW spring of 2019 from the ESRM department with departmental honors. My interests include natural resource management, corporate social responsibility, sustainable business practices, and sales! I love everything the PNW has to offer, like gorgeous scenery and a yummy Top Pot donut from time to time.

Proudest Moment: Completing a research project and writing it up into a scientific paper!

Thesis: Differential Longitudinal Posterior Cingulate Cortex Connectivity Trajectories in Normal Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's disease

s-brlee@comcast.net

Apart from research, I enjoy long distance running and writing.

Proudest Moment: graduation

Thesis: Relating Individual Differences in Culturally Unfamiliar Music Comprehension to Neurocognitive Aspects of Second Language Aptitude

My name is Jiafei Li. I majored in Psychology and minored in Informatics. I love music and literature, and have always been interested in their impact on us human. Therefore, under the mentorship of Dr. Prat, I conducted the research of music comprehension, as well as its relation to language learning. I hope to continue to "be boundless", to keep exploring various fields of knowledge and extending my limit.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments at UW was receiving the Mary Gates Research Scholarship!

Thesis: Child-Nature Interaction in a Hong Kong Nature Preschool Program: An Interaction Pattern Approach

lingwaiamberlam@gmail.com

I've always been passionate about child development and education.

Throughout my time at UW, I was a researcher at the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological System Lab (the HINTS lab) and completed my thesis under Dr. Kahn's supervision. I was also an intern at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital in the Psychiatry and Developmental Assessment Center. In addition, I also served as an infant-toddler teacher assistant at the Haring Center - Experimental Education Unit (EEU) at UW, which promotes inclusive education and facilitates understanding between children with and without disabilities.

I would like to thank everyone who has been a part of my journey here at UW!

Proudest Moment: One of the proudest moments for me at UW were those time when my teams won several very competitive business case competitions.

Thesis: ASC-606 Readiness and SAB 74 Disclosure Quality

kellylc31@icloud.com

I am an international student from China. I have had a challenging but wonderful 4-year experience here at UW Foster School of Business.

Foster has helped shape and define who I want to be in the future, and will continue to remind me of who I used to be, what I learned from my past and how I can take the lessons learned with me going forward.

As I am graduating, I am on the way to start my career at Deloitte Consulting NYC office. I hope Huskies can keep connected no matter where we go. Go purple, be gold!

Proudest Moment: Becoming a member of Phi Beta Kappa as a junior.

Thesis: Differential Development of Myelin in the Zebra Finch Song System Corresponds to Faster Song Tempo

One of my most significant experiences has been undergraduate research in Dr. David Perkel’s lab studying the neural mechanisms of learning, memory, and vocalization that allow singing in songbirds like zebra finches. I discovered how much I enjoy the challenges of research and understanding how research can translate into clinical medicine and patient care.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my coursework to earn degrees in Neurobiology and Psychology. I love studying everything and anything about the nervous system, from molecular mechanisms to anatomy, from neuropharmacology to the neural basis of human behavior.

During my Husky years, I discovered my passion for helping others. I now know that I want to help people improve their health and I plan to attend medical school. I am very grateful for love and support from my family, friends, and mentors. I am also proud to earn Departmental Honors in Neurobiology and be a part of the UW Honors Family.

Proudest Moment: Being able to graduate in 4 years from such an amazing university and program! It's been an incredible journey and I'm so thankful for the things I've been able to achieve in my time here.

tayler.hoftell@gmail.com

As a first generation college student, I never thought I would be where I am at today. I've been able to accomplish literally my wildest dreams here at UW. Before I started college, I knew I wanted to be an engineer. I found the MSE department my freshman year at UW and knew that was the path I wanted to go down. Although there have been plenty of ups and downs throughout my time here, I’ve found this degree to be so rewarding and I sometimes I can’t believe how far I’ve come since my freshman year. I've been involved with incredible research in the MSE department and with the Boeing Advanced Research Center on campus that has truly shaped my undergraduate experience here. After graduation, I'll be starting my career as an engineer at Honeywell Aerospace and I couldn't be more excited!

Proudest Moment: Being selected as a finalist for the Marshall Scholarship.

Thesis: Associations between depression, traumatic brain injury, and cognitively-defined late-onset Alzheimer clinical syndrome subgroups

I intend to pursue a career in research and medicine. Following graduation, I am moving to Boston to work as a research associate at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where I will study functional cancer genomics.
Outside of school/work, my favorite hobbies are running, reading, and playing the piano.

Proudest Moment: Finishing my Spanish honors thesis and Informatics Capstone - both of these projects felt like a great way to round out my time in these majors

Thesis: Transgender Identity in Spain: From the Second Republic, to Dictatorship, and Democracy

lyonsp@uw.edu

I am excited by the intersection of social justice and technology, and while defining what this means exactly is an ongoing process, the past five years at UW have helped that significantly.

As a Data Management Fellow at the Latino Community Fund, I have had the opportunity to combine my Spanish and Informatics majors and also work in a non-profit, which is something I have loved. Being welcomed into and supported by the LCF family has been one of the best experiences over the past two years and has helped me better understand how I want to contribute to communities throughout my life.

Another defining experience has been my work in residential life. I started as an Office Assistant during my freshman year, worked as an RA for two years, and am finishing my time in res life as an ARD for Lander Hall. I have made some of my best friends from these experiences and have built upon my professional identity. These roles have challenged me in ways I never expected and I will take these experiences with me wherever I go. It will be strange to not live in a res hall next year (and have to pay rent...)!

I was very excited when I found out that UW has an Equestrian Club so I could continue competing in the sport that I have done for most of my life. The club quickly became a key part of my time at UW, providing one of my first opportunities for leadership. I held three exec positions in the club, including President last year, and had the chance to compete twice at Zones. It's hard to find people to talk to about horses, but this little group offered that much needed space and community.

There are obviously many other experiences that have led me to this point, including being an Info 200 TA, a Dream Project mentor, meeting amazing friends, working with awesome professors, a lot of fun experiences and also hard days. I am excited to take these experiences and relationships with me as I move on to whatever is next.

Proudest Moment: Finally finishing my thesis and winning the Lev Award

Thesis: How the Rise of Local Identity Eroded Pan-Chinese Nationalism in Taiwan and Hong Kong

As a Taiwanese American, the nuances of Taiwan's complicated relationship with China has always fascinated me and is also a catalyst for my interest in political science and international relations. Throughout my undergraduate career, I was involved with various on-campus organizations that focused on important international issues. Most notably, I served as President for the Model United Nations club at UW. Through my role, I attended and staffed various international and local conferences where I was able to gain a better understanding of and appreciation for the dynamics of the international community.

This fall, I will be attending UW Law School as a Gregoire Fellow. This unique opportunity will offer me the chance to receive mentorship from former governor Christine Gregiore and to intern at a variety of local law firms, government agencies, and corporations. As a future law student, I hope to study international business law and continue to learn about Asian law and government.

Proudest Moment: Working on problem sets with my friends are both the proudest and most rewarding moments that I've had at UW. Solving some 446 problems with Luke are definitely the most memorable of the bunch.

Thesis: Verifying Strong Eventual Consistency in δ-CRDTs

My Website ttaylorr@cs.washington.edu

I am graduating with a BS in Computer Science with Departmental Honors from the Paul G. Allen School for Computer Science, and a minor in Mathematics. My thesis is about verifying that δ-CRDTs achieve Strong Eventual Consistency. After graduation, I am continuing to work at GitHub full-time.

Proudest Moment: Becoming a Bonderman Fellow

Thesis: Diet Composition of Carnivores in the Western United States Over the Last Century

thadeus@uw.edu

From a very young age, I have had a love for the outdoors and studying animals. Both of my parents have jobs in the environmental field, leading me to aspire to be like them when I came of age. They have been my biggest supporters and I cannot thank them enough for encouraging me while I pursue my dreams. I am currently an undergraduate student in my last year at the University of Washington. I am obtaining a B.S. in Environmental Science and Resource Management with a focus in Wildlife Conservation. I am also minoring in Quantitative Science. Before attending the UW, I transferred universities twice while balancing financial hardships with my scholarly career. I am extremely proud to be graduating alongside my peers, having finished my bachelor's in only four years. My time here at the University of Washington has provided me with many resources and truly set me up for the future. While at the UW, I have worked in both the Predator Ecology lab and the Disturbance Ecology lab in the School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. Both experiences have prepared me for a career in the realm of ecology and inspired me to continue my education in a graduate program. Before starting graduate school, I have accepted a wildlife technician position with the University of Illinois - Springfield where I will be reintroducing and monitoring state endangered Osprey. Following this summer, I have the privilege of travelling the world as part of the Bonderman Travel Fellowship. My long-term career aspirations are to work for the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife or United States Fish and Wildlife Service managing wildlife populations, specifically focusing on predators.

Proudest Moment: Graduating and earning my Baccalaureate degree from the University of Washington with Departmental Honors has been my proudest moment here. It demonstrates my discipline into being a critical thinker and continuously learning. It is more than just a piece of paper earned, it is a journey in which I committed my blood, sweat, and tears to.

Thesis: “Maybe I Shouldn’t Buy a Coffee so I can Pay Off my Student Loans”: Racial Differences in the Moralization of Student Debt

yanac@uw.edu

This is me. A self portrait drawn in graphite. This portrait captures much more of who I am than a photo ever will because I created this representational image of myself, who I am, and what I see. I love drawing, painting, and sketching but I also am a child and first time University graduate of immigrant parents. I have seen and experienced many cultures and ways of life and gone through life's journey leading me here to the University of Washington. During my time here I have gained experience and educated myself in as many disciplines as possible such as art, technology, computer programming, and Sociology. All of these may seem unrelated on the surface but really they all have a connection in the way we learn as people, how we as a society and culture interact with each other, and how we as people develop our identity and sense of self. For four years at the University of Washington I explored the nuances of life, learned about various disciplines in many different fields of knowledge, which all gave greater meaning to my life and my journey for the future. Especially, as an Honors Sociology student and researcher I delved into the studies of society, culture, and people and why we create the lives that we do. Getting down and dirty into the field of social science research taught me a lot about the tendencies of society and the conceptualizations of morality. However, as I learned about other people I also learned about myself which is the greatest gift that this educational journey has given me.
Looking back on my past four years here at the University of Washington and my life I have also taken part in so many amazing positions and opportunities from working with Senator Maria Cantwell to the Seattle City Prosecutors office in the Criminal division to computer software and programming to the Honors Sociology program during my last year here. I am grateful for every single one of these experiences as they have taught me about myself and what my true passions are in life. No matter what I choose to do with my future each opportunity taught me valuable knowledge and skills that are irreplaceable.
For my future I want to incorporate all of my passions and all of these experiences together because no career, job, or area of life is isolated. Science and technology require art just like art requires ideas of science, technology, and innovation. I am excited for what is to come and everything that I will succeed in.

Proudest Moment: Being a part of Husky 100 for 2019

I am very stoked to be graduating from UW PoE! I majored in environmental studies and am very interested in public policy, history and political science. I started out farming at the UW and ended interning with King County and Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. I have loved my time at UW and cannot wait to enter this hectic world and participate in making it better.

Proudest Moment: I'd have to say my proudest moment at UW was getting into the English department Honors program and fulfilling one of my academic goals. Being able to learn and work with the faculty and my peers has been amazing, and I literally could not have picked a better time to be in an Honors cohort focusing on temporality and human extinction.

Thesis: In the Wreckage of Humanity: Ruins, Agency, and the Art of Post-Apocalyptic Video Games

My experience at the University of Washington has been defined by my commitment to literary scholarship and health care, as well as the personal empowerment I've felt in pursuing both English literature and STEM. This has all set me on my path towards becoming a physician, (hooray for studying for the MCAT soon!), and I'm hoping to keep up my writing as much as possible in the future. My love for creative writing and English has only grown in the English Honors program, and I can't be more excited for what's next.

I'm beyond grateful for the friendships I've made during my undergrad, and for everything I've been able to learn. Cheers to four years, UW.

Proudest Moment: I am proud of all the opportunities I have taken to give back to my community.

Thesis: Effects of Regenerative Agriculture on Soil Health

I would like to make large-scale impacts in the world of environmentalism. I have been so grateful for the opportunities I have been given at the University of Washington. The most notable is simply access to the amazing outdoors of the pacific northwest. My program allowed me to spend so much time among the trees where I am happiest!

Thank you to everyone I've met along the way and to all of those who have made me into the woman I am today. I could not have achieved this without all of you.

Proudest Moment: The summers I have spent in the field, living and working as an archaeological researcher in Oregon!

Thesis: “Through a Screen”: The Photogrammetry and Digital Curation of Belongings from the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde”

sophimuro@gmail.com

Hi! My name is Sophie and I am a recent graduate of the Anthropology Department Honors Program! I am passionate about decolonizing museum collections and archaeological methods in order to create accessible resources for extant community members. In Fall 2020, I will begin a graduate degree in Museum Studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., with the long-term goal of working in collections management and curation. My time as an honors student has allowed me to travel, research, and build lasting connections with professors and community members!

Proudest Moment: Playing for the University of Washington ice hockey team for 4 years

Thesis: Survival Under Foreign Pressure: How Authoritarian Regimes React To International Sanctions

sm@simonmachalek.com

What an interesting journey it has been. As an international student, I came to University of Washington by myself across half of the world in order to pursue my dreams and advance in my career. Now that I am done with my studies here, I cannot describe how interesting and how beneficial was my time in Seattle.

All 4 years shaped who I am today, but the most defining experience was definitely the Honors program, through which I had the time and opportunity to work with amazing people and really focus on what interests me the most. The resulting thesis, which examines how authoritarians react to international sanctions and how they cope with the effects, has revealed to me what are my true passions and what I want to focus on in the future. To me, this is priceless and I am grateful for the opportunity I was given.

Although it feels unreal, it's time to leave Seattle and move on to the next chapter. In Fall I will begin studies at the Georgetown University, where I will pursue a master's degree in Security Studies. I cannot wait to continue in my path forward.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment would be presenting my research at the undergraduate research symposium. It was great to see all my work come together like that.

Thesis: Engineering DNA loops using a protein switch DNA sensor

kieral@uw.edu

I am most interested in molecular biology, particularly in relation to human health. Outside of academics, I enjoy playing basketball, hiking, and music.

Proudest Moment: Working as a House Manager at Meany Center for the Performing Arts

Thesis: Film, Medicine, & Moscow: Translations of Maxim Osipov's "Little Lord Fauntleroy" & "Fantasy"

levi.j.sy@gmail.com

My time at UW has certainly been one of unexpected, yet completely fulfilling, events. Coming to UW four long years ago, I knew that I wanted to get a degree in the physical sciences, likely in chemistry or biochemistry. While that did come to pass, it was one of the few parts of my education that followed my initial plans. Little did I know then that I would begin studying the Russian language, study abroad in St. Petersburg for a summer, and pursue an additional degree from the Department of Slavic Languages & Literature, much less write a translation thesis, translating two contemporary short stories from Russian into English. Despite the unforeseen nature of all of this, I wouldn't change it for the world.
Beyond classes, I enjoyed playing the French horn in various bands and orchestras on campus, as well as working at Meany Center for the Performing Arts as an usher and now a house manager. Looking forward, I hope to take a year or two off of school and then pursue a higher degree, likely in international relations or political science. Thank you to all of my friends, colleagues, and professors for your support!

Proudest Moment: Completing my degree in three years and exactly 180 credits!

Thesis: Elements of Compromised Autobiographical Memory and PTSD

vanesl@uw.edu

I love music, good reads, and getting outside! It was a pride and joy to lead The Veritas Forum at UW for three years and I have a similar desire to be gracious and conversational with people who think differently than I do. I love themes of generativity and creativity out of trauma, and I hope to bring such components of healing into my work with trauma populations in the future.

Proudest Moment: Volunteering as a lead at UW Nurse Camp and seeing my campers/future nurses graduate!

Thesis: Improving Pediatric Asthma Shared Management: Development of the Symptom Monitoring and Response Module for the Child Asthma Management Program (CHAMP)

tkolstad@uw.edu

I have a previous degree in biology from the University of Washington and worked as a research scientist at Seattle Children's for four years. I came back to school to pursue nursing because my experiences at Seattle Children's showed me that what is really important to me in healthcare are relationships with people, and no one has more intimate relationships with patients than nurses. In whatever work I am doing, my purpose is always to help children lead the healthiest, most fulfilling lives possible.

Proudest Moment: Seeing my friends with whom I transferred from community college graduate from the UW and continue to carve out their own path.

steiner.gen@gmail.com

Born in Boston, grew up in Austria, fell in love with music early on and eventually took an interest in chemical engineering. I enjoy long-distance running, lining up for archery sessions, hanging out for some Dungeons & Dragons, and am almost always down to learn a new skill. My time here at the UW, with its resources and research environment, allowed me to pursue many of these interests, and provided an education that I know has already had a lasting effect on my trajectory forward.

Proudest Moment: Graduating with departmental honors

Thesis: The Power of Microcelebrities: Difference in Perceived Credibility Between Male and Female Microcelebrities and Traditional Celebrities

brianchan28ph@gmail.com

If someone were to ask me in 2016 where I would be in 2018, the answer would probably be an underwhelming “school I guess”.
Fast forward two years, and I’m delighted to say I'm graduating from one of the best public universities in the nation with honors one year ahead of schedule, headed to graduate school for a master's degree in communication.
An immigrant from Hong Kong, I moved to Washington state at age 15. My broken English back then meant I could barely speak for myself, and with a transferred GPA of 1.4, my grades did not speak highly of me either. After a few years of adapting to a vastly different culture and environment, I was miraculously admitted to the University of Washington.
Regardless of how reassuring the admission sounded, hurdles were still present as I fought through dyslexia. Through my endeavor to excel in school, help from a number of marvelous professors, and an urge to do research, I was introduced to the Department of Communication's honors program. For the first time, I acquired a multitude of research methods, and was exposed to literature of various disciplines and the depth and breadth of knowledge research brings to the world.
Unlike most other jobs, doing research means every bit of your time committed is a learning opportunity. Whether it be reviewing literature or analyzing data, there is is something valuable in every step of the way, and by becoming a researcher anyone can discover or reveal a piece of knowledge no one has ever figured out before.
Being in the Department of Communication’s honors program is one of the best decisions I’ve made in my life thus far, hence I encourage everyone to join one at the University of Washington if possible. It has changed my life forever and I regret nothing. The future is brighter than ever because of research.

Proudest Moment: My honors thesis on #MeToo, my EDUC 401 program, where I mentored three individuals for three separate quarters, and winning second place at the Deloitte Case Competition for consulting.

Thesis: #MeToo: To what extent does hashtag activism around #MeToo spur cultural and institutional changes?

My Website pdoowa@uw.edu

I was born and raised in Bangkok, Thailand and I moved to Seattle for my undergraduate studies at the University of Washington. I am graduating with a Journalism degree with minors in Nutritional Sciences and Writing. During my time at the UW, I have received two scholarships, the Max & Monica Journalism Scholarship and the Marjorie Kaczor Alhadeff Endowed Scholarship for Journalism. I am interested in pursuing a career in consulting and marketing post-graduation but I have a passion for travelling so I'll be doing that during the summer!

Proudest Moment: As a state need grant recipient myself, I am most proud of the passing of HB 2158, which secures funding to exempt students with families that make under 50K from paying tuition in any higher education institution in the state. It is the first successful free college tuition program of its kind and it makes me proud of the collective work we did to make this happen as Higher Ed advocates!!

Thesis: Neoliberalism: An ineffective Shorthand

The relationships CHID (Comparative History of Ideas) allowed me to develop abroad while researching in Argentina and Sardinia launched me into the organizing work I have been involved in while at the UW. During college I could be found in every corner of campus as a Resident Advisor, tutoring for the Economics Board, meeting with the Dean on a college council, leading a CHID focus group, mentoring students in UWL, and organizing lobbying related activities to advocate for student issues at the State Legislature. Outside of campus, I sought to apply the perspective I'd gained from economics and critical theory from the social justice lens of CHID into my professional development, the most formative of which was organizing an international conference for a nonprofit focused on bilateral trade between Africa and the Pacific Northwest. The relationships I formed at this nonprofit, and with the African immigrant community more broadly in Seattle, led me to help execute a new leadership conference called Africa Now that has since been a large annual event on the UW's campus. Originally inspired by womxn of color visionary and speculative fiction authors, I have sought to create the world I want on my small scale as I know that it will reflect on the larger world and its functioning. From this, I know that the work the world needs to be able to respond to today's global challenges would be severely limited without visionary work and relationship building across difference.

Proudest Moment: Attending the capstone symposium and presenting my lightning talk

Thesis: Making Your Spring Break Sustainable: Can Tourism Be A Driver for Positive Environmental Change?

kort89@uw.edu

I am recent honors graduate from the University of Washington's Program on the Environment. I completed my undergraduate research in Mexico, where I studied sustainability in the heritage and tourism fields. My main interests are in creating better management techniques so that the travel industry can be more socially and ecologically responsible; and doing interdisciplinary research and applying systems thinking approaches to different problems. I have had the opportunity to develop many of my skills through study abroads in China and in Mexico. I am currently working with a Cultural Heritage Management non-profit in Mexico where I am attending and planning conferences for people in the travel, tourism, and heritage fields and I hope to start a podcast that addresses sustainability in travel.

Proudest Moment: Presenting my capstone research on compostable diapers at the Program on the Environment Capstone Symposium

k.jobe@outlook.com

My upbringing, of environmental education, skiing, and backpacking in the Pacific Northwest, fostered my goal to work toward a career in environmental policy to help ensure the environment as we know it will stay prime for adventure for all future generations. I’ve been an executive officer of Global Sustainability Initiatives, a College of the Environment Student Ambassador, and intern for Connect 3 — a nonprofit that partners with villages in Ethiopia and Peru to improve waste, water, and education practices.

Proudest Moment: Successfully adapting to a new language, culture, and way of life while studying abroad.

Thesis: Towards Resource-Efficient Contextual Word Representations for Parsing

My Website

I’m graduating with a dual degree in Computer Science (Data Science) and Linguistics. I’ve always pushed myself to gain a deeper understanding of everything I pursue and to work to advance the lives of others. To this end, I’ve filled my time at UW with experiences that have challenged me to grow intellectually and personally.
My research is in natural language processing, and I design computational approaches to tackle problems involving language. At UW, I’ve developed techniques for effectively modeling languages for which data is scarce and conventional methods are ineffective. I hope to bring the benefits of language technologies, like translation and misinformation detection, to speakers of such underrepresented languages. As a TA for the NLP class, I had the opportunity to share these experiences with many of my colleagues in CS.
I’m passionate about expanding my perspectives, and during the fall of my senior year, I studied abroad at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. In addition to challenging myself through graduate-level coursework, I gained valuable experience in appreciating, adapting to, and understanding a new culture.
I’ve interned three times as a software engineer: twice at Indeed.com, and once at Facebook. Following graduation, I’ll intern once more at Facebook before returning to UW, where I’ll pursue a M.S. in Computer Science and continue my research in NLP. I hope to continue learning, exploring the world, and improving others’ lives!

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment at UW would probably be getting the position on my first field crew. There was so much to learn and such a huge adventure ahead of me; all of my hard work had paid off.

Thesis: Impacts of Burn Severity on Soil Hydrophobicity in the Pacific Northwest

My Website

Throughout my time at UW I have had the opportunity to work two post-wildfire field seasons throughout Washington, Montana, and Oregon. My passion for field work, environmental science, and soil ecology has now led me to continue at UW for my masters of science focused on post-wildfire soil ecology.

Proudest Moment: Leading the Husky Badminton Club in hosting the largest and only student-run tournament in Washington State

My Website

My time UW has been packed with opportunities and experiences which let me explore my interests and passions. I've also found a wonderful community in my majors, research, and clubs. After graduation, I will be continuing my research as a Washington Research Foundation Innovation Postbaccalaureate Fellow in Neuroengineering in the Perlmutter Lab.

Proudest Moment: Among all the small moments like trying new things and taking challenging courses that I am proud of, the memory of reading the first article I got published and printed in The Daily my freshman year was a very exciting and proud moment.

Thesis: The Progression of Presidential Speeches Over the Course of Operation Enduring Freedom

znshadan@gmail.com

I moved to Seattle from San Diego with a readiness to try new things, meet new people, and learn and challenge myself as much as I could. Even with the eagerness I had as a young freshman, the people, personal growth, challenges, and experiences these past four years brought me were more than I could have ever expected. My passion for people, social and political justice, and writing grew, and inspired me to double major in both Communication and Political Science. For nearly a year and a half I wrote for The Daily, exploring topics in wellness, politics, sustainability, and entertainment that let me dip my toes into journalism. In my second year, I acted as a constitutive member and network ambassador for the UW Sustainability Action Network, headed by Lance Bennett, where my team and I worked to build a platform for various student organizations to collaborate and build a movement towards social, political, economic, and environmental sustainability. Then came my third year where I fulfilled a dream I dreamt when I was just a kid, and that was to live in Paris, France. My exchange brought me to studying at The Paris Institute of Political Studies, where I took courses in strategies and ethics of war, rhetoric in the French political system, and EU integration, amongst many other topics. I was able to ameliorate my French and German language skills, travel across Western and Eastern Europe both with others and independently, and meet people from all different cultural and academic backgrounds. The year reaffirmed my passion for diversity, culture, languages, and conversation rooted in listening and sharing experiences and perspectives. This affirmation encouraged me to pursue a thesis under the Department of Communication during my fourth year, where my ultimate research topic aimed to critically analyze the extent to which American exceptionalism exists and plays a role in political relations. The result was focused on comparing presidential speeches throughout Operation Enduring Freedom, speaking more narrowly to the differences between presidential communication, and suggested further explorations in assessing the purpose of political partisanship. In this past year, I also had the pleasure of working at the Odegaard Writing and Research Center, working with UW students, faculty, and staff in familiarizing themselves with and strengthening their writing processes.

While my plans after graduation are yet to be determined, I am hoping to find a position in the non-profit sector where I can apply what I have learned these past four years, and will continue to learn as I transition from student to professional, to change-making and cause-oriented work.

Proudest Moment: Building complicated ML models (after days of debugging) that benefit and potentially save human health

Thesis: A Take on Generalized Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: Effects of Residency Away From Work on Income Inequality

kangb6187@gmail.com

UW wasn't the highest ranking school I was admitted to. Some told me that I was making a huge mistake and I will come to regret it someday, but something that I can't really express pushed me to come to UW. Now that I'm done, I can tell what that "something" was: Cooking, friends, all-nighters, research, mentorships, bowling, hiking, internships, coffee chats, cold emails, stressing, drinking, binge-watch, TA-ing, free food, clubs, machine learning, and much much more.

I don't regret a single bit coming to UW. I'm finishing strong and all the experiences stay with me forever.

Proudest Moment: In ESRM 315, we took a field trip to Mount St. Helens and had a tour of a forest lead by Jerry Franklin. He is an inspiration in the forestry world, so getting to meet him was an amazing opportunity.

Thesis: The Effects of Stand Age, Species, and Geographic Location on Seed Counts Within Serotinous Cones

ashleyhillis2020@gmail.com

Hi! My name is Ashley Hillis and I am graduating with a degree in ESRM with a focus in forest management and with departmental honors. My time at UW has been filled with so many research opportunities that have provided invaluable experience. For instance, I worked with two different UW grad students in the Quantitative Ecology lab monitoring different types of animals. I also worked for the center in urban horticulture collecting data on the beautiful cherries trees at UW to help make a model to predict when they will bloom. I also took my research interest outside of UW and did a summer of fieldwork with Pacific Wildland Fire Science Lab. I spent the summer under the California sun measuring vegetation and tree DBH in high severity burned areas. When I came back to UW I spent my senior year continuing research in fire disturbances by studying serotinous cones and different variables that affect the seeds they contain. I did this work under the guidance of Michelle Agne a Ph.D. student in the Harvey Lab. Over the summer I will continue doing work with the Harvey lab doing fieldwork. In the future, I plan on continuing my passion for environmental science and attending graduate school.

Proudest Moment: One of my proudest moments was when I was awarded the SAFS Faculty Merit Award

Thesis: Zebrafish embryo screening to evaluate the effective removal of toxics from urban stormwater runoff using novel bioretention methods

I grew up with my two brothers and little sister in the small city of Herriman, UT where I spent my time swimming, hiking, playing soccer, riding horses, and playing the saxophone. Since I was a little girl I knew I wanted to move away to the ocean. At first, I thought that meant going to college in California but life brought me to the University of Washington, and I am so glad it did. I have loved my time at the UW. I have experienced some truly exceptional opportunities including a summer in Alaska studying salmon and a quarter at Friday Harbor collecting data from research boats and studying skates. Attending a school with 47,000+ students can be difficult but I was lucky to find community within the College of the Environment where I represented as a student ambassador for a couple of years. I am excited to jump into the next stage of my life where I hope to apply my degree in a career oriented toward environmental education and outreach to work for a sustainable future for all.

Proudest Moment: Finishing my thesis! I've grown so much as a writer in the past three years, so finishing a project on that scale was very gratifying.

Thesis: Really Really Real: Reality in Performance and the Hyperreal in the Plays of Annie Baker

In addition to the English department, I've been heavily involved with the School of Drama as well as the Department of Dance, taking many classes in those departments. I've also participated in eight productions (plays and musicals) during my time at UW, primarily as an actor but also as a director and crew member. This year in the English Honors sequence I've had the opportunity to focus on Drama and write a thesis about one of my favorite contemporary playwrights, Annie Baker. I've also had the opportunity to blend my interests in English and Drama by working as a Literary Intern at ACT Theatre.

This August I will be moving to New York City to attend a two-and-a-half year acting conservatory program at the Atlantic Acting School.

Proudest Moment: When I received a 4.0 in an extremely mathematically challenging course on financial derivatives, even with my strong aversion to math.

I am passionate about cooking, reading, fitness, and music (both playing and listening to). I also love watching movies and am a total film snob.

Some things I've accomplished are: Attaining the rank of Eagle Scout in the Boy Scouts, going on a month long solo backpacking trip to Mexico, and graduating (hopefully) from the UW with a business degree.

Proudest Moment: My proudest moment was when I got to present my research at an international conference in Vancouver! Later that year, I also got to publish my research in an academic peer-reviewed journal, which was very rewarding.

Thesis: Mitochondrial Biogenesis in Zebrafish Cone Photoreceptors

Daniel Brock is a graduating senior majoring in biochemistry and molecular biology. Daniel works in the Brockerhoff lab studying circadian rhythm and stress responses in the mitochondria of cone cells in the zebrafish retina. After graduation, Daniel is going to spend 2 years at the NIH in the lab of Dr. Rosandra Kaplan, researching genetically engineered myeloid cells to make the immune system better at fighting metastatic cancer. Eventually, Daniel plans on becoming a physician scientist. In his spare time, Daniel enjoys photography, video games, and watching movies.

Proudest Moment: Thus, after completing bachelor's degree at this amazing UW, I hope to pursue my dream of becoming medical doctor and the medical anthropologist and hope to serve as the stepping stone towards inclusive community-building with cultural humility here and in Myanmar.

Thesis: apartheid, the State of Exception, and Rohingya Women in Myanmar (Burma): An Auto-Ethnographic Intervention

trinity.ttmo@gmail.com

Hi there! My name is Thu Thu and I am originally from Myanmar (Burma). Studying at the UW has been a great privilege for me as I have got to meet so many passionate and amazing people who have now become my family. From cliff diving and dipping my feet in taro farms during the study abroad trip in Hawaii to excavating the role of my own in the society fueled by apartheid and health disparities, the UW has given me so many opportunities to challenge myself beyond my own fear and the limits! What's more, through writing poetry, auto-ethnography, and storytelling, I have become more mindful and aware of the racial disparities and injustice around us.