On May 23, the 乱伦社区鈥檚 Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center will present the 2024 Spring CELEbration, a forum for undergraduates to showcase their contributions to service, leadership and activist work conducted in partnership with the community.
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UAA鈥檚 LeAnne Wiles receives Thorud Leadership Award
We are delighted to congratulate LeAnne Wiles on being named one of two recipients for the Thorud Leadership Award, the highest award for leadership at the 乱伦社区! Wiles is the executive director of First Year Programs and Strategic Initiatives in UAA鈥檚 Student Academic Services. Wiles began her UW career in First Year Programs in 2009, managing parent orientation, the First-year Interest Group program and other elements of First Year Programs. In the last 15 years, she has made an indelible mark on how new students are welcomed to campus and how they find a sense of belonging in their first year. To be effective in this work, Wiles and the First Year Programs team she leads reach out across campus, developing partnerships with academic and administrative units with the vision of creating a campus-wide welcome and culture of belonging for first-year students.
Innovation revealed at the 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium
On May 17, over 1,200 undergraduates will present cutting-edge research and scholarship at the 27th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, a signature event for the 乱伦社区.
乱伦社区鈥檚 Jumpstart welcomes Kinders to College!
The 乱伦社区’s Jumpstart program recently welcomed kindergarteners from the Federal Way Public Schools (FWPS) to the Seattle campus. The visit was part of the FWPS’s new Kinders to College initiative that launched this academic year and aims to promote the importance of early college and career readiness.
鈥淥ur new Kinders to College program allows young kindergarten students to begin learning about the college and career opportunities available to them,鈥� said FWPS superintendent Dr. Dani Pfeiffer. 鈥淲ith repeated exposure to multiple post-secondary pathways, over time students will build an appetite for success, and it鈥檚 important that this process begins early,鈥� she said.
The collaboration between Jumpstart and FWPS extends Jumpstart鈥檚 commitment to providing equal educational opportunities to all young children and breaking cycles of poverty. Jessica Hunnicut Batten, director of Local P12 Education Partnerships at UAA鈥檚 Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center, expressed her excitement about the partnership and the benefits it will bring.
Batten emphasized the importance of exposing young scholars to college and post-secondary pathways early, as studies show that children begin contemplating their future careers in elementary school. 鈥淏y offering students early exposure to a college environment, they can get excited about education and develop career aspirations, which will motivate them as they navigate their educational journey,鈥� Batten said.
Nicole Collopy, a UW alum, cited her time as a former career and college readiness assistant with the , which has been going to schools in the Federal Way School District for over a decade, as instrumental in shaping her approach to fostering educational equity and inclusion.
Supporting the amazing communities she worked with through the Dream Project allowed Collopy to evolve her understanding of the systems and structures that create barriers to educational equity. This brought her to her current position as FWPS鈥檚 college and career readiness facilitator,聽 鈥淭he experiential learning I participated in, through what is now the CELE Center, shaped my journey by allowing me to apply my knowledge and explore my passions, eventually leading me to discover my love of college access work,鈥� Collopy said.
The Kinders to College event was organized in partnership with Batten and Collopy, with the help of the Dream Project鈥檚 sister program, UW Jumpstart. Jumpstart students designed and led groups of kindergarteners in hands-on classroom activities, introducing them to different careers such as dentistry, art, archeology and pediatrics. The event also included a visit by UW mascot Harry the Husky and a walking scavenger hunt to the fountain.
Magnolia Wood, 鈥�25, a Jumpstart leader majoring in speech and hearing sciences, shared her experience of the event. 鈥淚 had a lot of fun watching the kids’ faces light up as they entered and again during our readings and activities,鈥� Wood shared. She expressed her hope that such events will become a lasting memory for the children as they grow up and pursue their dreams.
Emely Dominguez, 鈥�25, Jumpstart leader majoring in education communities and organizations, echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the value of exposing young minds to various career possibilities. 鈥淪eeing how happy they were in a college environment was satisfying because this not only helps the students have a positive view towards their education but also the belief that they can achieve any dream,鈥� Dominguez said.
Jumpstart leader Carmela Paz, 鈥�24, reflected on the fulfilling experience of the Kinders to College event. She highlighted her role in preparing materials and creating a fun learning environment, particularly in the Bob Ross room where kids could express their creativity through art. 鈥淲e had the children engage and apply what they read about by giving them canvases and watercolor paint to create their pieces of artwork,鈥� Paz said. 鈥淚 loved working alongside them and seeing their creativity roam, sharing with us and their classmates!鈥� she said.
鈥淚t was a great start to our student鈥檚 educational journey toward success and we are thankful for our partnership with 乱伦社区鈥檚 Jumpstart program for joining us in this effort,鈥� said Dr. Pfeiffer. The UW Jumpstart program remains committed to the ongoing partnership and advancing education equity across the region.
About Jumpstart
Through Jumpstart, UW students provide language, social-emotional and literacy programming for preschool children from under-resourced communities and promote quality early learning for all children. UW students gain experience in preschool classrooms, setting goals, teamwork and leadership skills.
Bitaniya Giday, UW junior, scholar, community organizer and poet, selected as Truman Scholar
When 乱伦社区 President Ana Mari Cauce, Provost Tricia Serio and Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor appeared in the Zoom room of Bitaniya Giday鈥檚 African American studies class, Giday was confused and even wondered if she was in trouble for something. But then President Cauce excitedly announced that Giday had been selected for the prestigious Truman Scholarship, a national award recognizing past accomplishments in and future commitment to public service and leadership.
Three UW students named 2024 Goldwater Scholars
Three 乱伦社区 undergraduates have been honored as Goldwater Scholars by the Goldwater Foundation, continuing the longstanding tradition of UW students receiving this honor. This year鈥檚 UW Goldwater Scholars are Dania Ahmed, Annabella Li and Masa Nakura-Fan. Their undergraduate research projects with faculty cover a range of topics such as the mechanisms underlying heart disease, designing, producing and testing novel protein-based systems, and computational fabrication and artificial intelligence.
UW recognized as a Fulbright top producer for the 2023-24 school year
The 乱伦社区 made the Chronicle of Higher Education鈥檚 list of the Fulbright top producing institutions. A total of 14 students received Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards for the academic year 2023-24, seven undergraduates or recent graduates and seven graduate-level students. Three UW faculty were named Fulbright scholars.
The scholarship program is the largest U.S. international exchange opportunity for students to pursue graduate study, advanced research and teaching in elementary and secondary schools worldwide. The UW awardees will join 2,000 students and recent graduates from around the country to study and teach abroad.
Celebrating the 2022鈥�23 Undergraduate Medalists
From the thousands of undergraduate students at the 乱伦社区, three are selected each year for the prestigious President鈥檚 Medalist Award. Sayako Mitchell, Ayush Agrawal and Cin Dacey Ahrens are the medalists for 2022鈥�23, selected by a committee for their high GPAs, rigor of classes and numbers of Honors courses. All three are students in the University Honors Program, completing the Interdisciplinary Honors track. Drawn to the UW for its academic reputation, each of these Huskies has carved out a unique path 鈥� exploring their chosen areas of study, ranging from computer science to applied mathematics and linguistics. The three medalists will be recognized by University President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Tricia Serio at a special reception, where each recipient will receive their medal in front of family, friends and mentors.
UW senior Abby Burtner selected to be 1 of 16 Churchill Scholars
Abby Burtner, 鈥�24, has been awarded the prestigious Churchill Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of biochemistry. As a Churchill Scholar, Burtner鈥檚 next step is to complete a fully-funded master鈥檚 degree in pathology at Cambridge University.
The Churchill Foundation selected 16 exceptional students as Churchill Scholars from a pool of 121 candidates this academic year. This year鈥檚 competition highlights the dedication, talent and exceptional accomplishments of the scholars, setting the stage for an even brighter future in the STEM fields and scientific exploration.
Burtner came to the UW from her hometown of Olympia, WA, and will be graduating in spring 2024 with a B.S in biochemistry with Interdisciplinary and Departmental Honors, along with minors in data science and chemistry. She got her start in research in Professor Sharlene Santana鈥檚 lab in the Department of Biology her freshman year and fell in love with the power of evolution to fine-tune and function on a macroevolutionary scale. By the end of her sophomore year, Burtner realized that a research career was the right fit for her through her work on computational biology projects supervised by Dr. Chris Law and Dr. Kelly Diamond.
As Burtner advanced in her college coursework, she became increasingly drawn to the microscopic level of life, leading her to join Professor Neil King鈥檚 group at the Institute for Protein Design in the Department of Biochemistry. There, she works on a project designing de novo proteins to bind toll-like receptors, key receptors that activate the innate immune system, for groundbreaking applications in vaccine development.
鈥淭he Churchill scholarship,鈥� says Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, 鈥渋s a prestigious opportunity for Abby to continue expanding her biochemistry skills. This award reflects her capacity to draw from her research and the mentorship she鈥檚 experienced, to fuel her work toward a greater understanding of our world in critical ways. The UW鈥檚 research community and campus-at-large are proud of Abby and encourage her as she continues to live out UW鈥檚 mission at Cambridge.鈥�
Burtner is a past recipient of the , Goldwater Scholarship, Washington Research Foundation Fellowship, , and has been an undergraduate research leader at the Office of Undergraduate Research. Burtner intends to chart a career pathway investigating immunological systems through a biophysical lens as a principal investigator at an academic or industrial research lab.
鈥淧ursuing a master鈥檚 at the University of Cambridge,鈥� says Burtner, 鈥渨ill help me achieve my goal of obtaining a Ph.D. in biophysics. By learning foundational immunological techniques and techniques at Cambridge, along with the experimental and computational biophysical approaches I’ve learned here at UW, I will be working toward solving medical issues with broad impacts such as vaccination and cancer immunotherapies.鈥� As she prepares for life in the UK, Burtner is excited about learning biomedical issues of global importance in an international context.
“I feel incredibly honored to receive the Churchill Scholarship鈥�, says Burtner. 鈥淚 could not have made it to this point without the stellar mentorship and support from the King Lab and Santana Lab at UW, particularly from my mentors Chloe Adams, Dr. Chris Law, Dr. Kelly Diamond, Robin Heiringhoff, and PIs Dr. Neil King, Dr. Sharlene Santana, Dr. Murat Maga, and Dr. Dietmar Manstein from the various research labs I have had the pleasure to work in. I would also like to thank my excellent honors chemistry and biochemistry professors, particularly Dr. Andrea Wills, for inspiring me to love this field and see a future for myself here, and the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, particularly Robin Chang, for her excellent guidance and advice. Finally, I am so grateful for my family and friends, particularly those from the honors chemistry/biochemistry community here at UW 鈥� it is truly a wonderful place to be learning how to be a scientist.”
Outside of the lab, Abby is an officer in the student club Biology Students for Equity. She can often be found embracing the beauty of Washington state, be it hiking and skiing in the majestic mountains, or running across the city with the Husky Running Club, of which she was president her junior year.
The Churchill Scholarship application process is supported by the , a UAA program. OMSFA works with faculty, staff and students to identify and support promising students in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for this and other prestigious awards.
The (and other scholarships supporting studies in the UK) will open in spring 2024 for 2025-2026 awards.
Communities and campus converge at the Community Engagement and Leadership Education Center
The Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center at the 乱伦社区 recently published its annual report for the 2022-23 academic year. This report is a testament to the remarkable impact and extraordinary achievements made by over 2,000 undergraduate students in leadership development, civic engagement and public service throughout the greater community.