Abigayil Talkington

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.