Undergraduate Academic Affairs

December 22, 2014

Message from Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor

Ed Taylor

Dear Friends of Undergraduate Academic Affairs,

As we all are about begin 2015, it feels right to pause for a moment of reflection.

Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor

Vice Provost and Dean Ed TaylorTony Grob

Fall quarter, I taught a seminar about leadership that crosses international boundaries. It’s connected to the Global Leadership Fellows Program, started by Waseda University in Tokyo; the UW Honors Program is a partner in it. In this seminar, UW and Waseda students examined leadership, citizenship and historical and current issues in bilateral relations. We read the constitutions and founding documents from Japan, the U.S., and the Netherlands. We studied the countries’ national anthems. These documents taught us about our own and others’ histories and the meaning that the past brings to the present. This helps us better understand each other today and in the future.

Looking at this history, we understand that there is no single narrative that forms a country. We see that individuals’ experiences create a collective national story that we continually strive to improve.

On a more local scale, it reminds me that there is no single Husky narrative. Students in my class were not just from Tokyo and the UW. They are from Vietnam but grew up in Kirkland. They were born in the Netherlands but went to school here. They grew up in China but go to school in Tokyo and are now here. They grew up in small towns in Japan. One came to the UW from Garfield, another from Roosevelt High School. And this is just one small seminar.

In this e-newsletter, I hope you’ll be inspired by student and alumni stories that show there is no single Husky narrative, but that when students connect to the boundless opportunities here they carry those experiences into the world and make an impact.

Alumni Sam Burden and Jennifer Lee carry forward their undergraduate research experiences: Sam will return to the UW as an assistant professor and inspire the next generation of researchers while Jennifer influences the nation’s science and technology policy from the White House.

Current undergraduate David Olsen talks about his path to, and then away from, and now back to college. The Dream Project reports on the findings from a four-year grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and I’m excited to share a video with students from the first cohort of the Global Leadership Fellows Program.

Our work in Undergraduate Academic Affairs is all about ensuring every undergraduate can connect to the UW in meaningful ways within and beyond the classroom so they are prepared for their careers and for contributing to the global good. Our students may have heard different national anthems growing up, but the songs—like our students—all hold themes of hope, freedom, peace and the possibility of a world of good.

Happy New Year,

Ed Taylor's Signature

Ed Taylor
Vice Provost and Dean
Undergraduate Academic Affairs

Back to Fall 2014/Winter 2015 e-newsletter