Justen Thomas Hardaway
UW Honors Graduates
Justen Thomas Hardaway

Biology Physiology
Designation: Interdisciplinary Honors
Honors Grads 2020/2021
Proudest Moment: Creating an educational workshop through livewell around the importance of movement, sleep, and nutrition that can be taught to future huskies
justenhardaway@gmail.comDuring my time at UW, I have been involved in a variety of organizations and opportunities. During my sophomore and junior year, I served as a peer educator for the honors program which allowed me to develop my teaching and communication skills. I was able to then hone and refine these skills during my senior year as a peer health educator (PHE) as Livewell teaching my peers about health promotion and harm prevention. I've also served as the IFC Director of Recruitment where I was able to make the recruitment process more accessible for potential new members.
One experience that I am really fortunate I was able to have was an honors study abroad to Italy in the summer of 2019. Little did I know that a few months later all travel would be closed. Italy was a place I had always dreamed of going to and I'm really happy to have those memories and come out of the experience with friends I'm still close to today.
This past year has forced me to grow comfortable with uncertainty. Whether it was uncertainty about what I want to do with my life or uncertainty about the pandemic, I've had to grow to realize that it's okay not to know what will happen next. We can plan all we want, but so much can happen that can derail those plans. Someone told me this last year that the best step someone could take is the next one. My next step is an internship at Seattle Children's this summer. I'm hoping is to treat this experience as an opportunity to explore my options in healthcare before deciding on a path I want to do.