The power of online learning

Posted on May 10, 2018February 3, 2020

Evans School and Academic and Student Affairs build a powerful platform for learning — and help improve health in Africa

Scott Fritzen, associate professor, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

When Associate Professor Scott Fritzen was asked to help craft and teach a long-distance program for mid-career African health professionals at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance, he jumped at the opportunity to improve public health in Africa through executive education.

A well-crafted program — with the bulk of the work conducted via live online classes — would need innovative and easy to use e-learning tools to succeed, he thought.

“We were seeking to build a tightly-knit community of health experts from a half dozen African countries — like-minded colleagues who would continue to work together to improve health outcomes throughout Africa long after classes ended,” Fritzen said.

Health professionals from six African countries participated in a pilot long-distance learning program at the Evans School.

So they partnered with online teaching experts at the Office of the Provost, and together they crafted a program backed by easy-to-use technologies that were quickly adopted by the participants and Evans faculty in the first International Program in Public Health Leadership held last fall.

The strategy worked better than expected, with the online tools playing a key role in helping the first cohort build skills as well as professional and personal relationships.

Financed by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the program focused heavily on individual coaching and mentoring, online and at the Seattle campus, with the goal of developing leadership, problem-solving and negotiation skills.

Group discussions came easily when the fellows arrived in Seattle because they got to know each other online.

“Our goal was to re-create the Evans classroom experience in an online long-distance course,” said Justin Marlowe, associate dean for Executive Education at the Evans School. “For us, it wasn’t enough to simply have one of our faculty members lecture online. The fellows would be coming to the Seattle campus after 10 weeks of online classes, so we wanted to build community before they arrived by providing a genuine, interactive experience.”

The pilot’s success has attracted attention from other UW departments that are interested in enhancing the online teaching and learning experience for the general student population — not just for professional continuing education. The Evans School is building on its success, applying lessons it learned from the fist program to its second, which started in the spring.

Partnering for success with Academic and Student Affairs

Last year, the Evans School asked UW-IT’s Learning Technologies, now part of Academic and Student Affairs in the Office of the Provost, to work with them to build the new program from scratch.

Learning Technologies has been focused on refining the online teaching and learning experience, and its staff understood the ins and outs of various technologies and how best to apply them according to circumstances.

“We were very fortunate that they asked us to partner with them,” said Nate McKee, director of Learning Technologies. “They told us, ‘we want you to help us build what is possible.’ Certainly, they were very ambitious and we welcomed the challenge.”

Connecting existing online tools creates powerful learning platform

McKee’s group recommended Canvas, the University’s learning management system.

“Canvas is very powerful and there are some very interesting things you can do with it,” McKee said. “So, with their input, we built a system around Canvas with UW-IT-sponsored tools” — including Zoom for live video collaboration, and Slack for instant messaging online.

“In a way, we were using technology creatively to stretch the experience and create a space so our program participants could interact over a longer period of time,” Fritzen said.

The fellows — who were located in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda — relied heavily on the tools, and the apps allowed Fritzen and as many as 10 other faculty members who participated in the program to communicate during online classes and outside the virtual classroom.

“We chose a multipronged approach, using Slack for small-group discussions and for one-on-one conversations. And we used the Zoom tool during the twice-weekly online classes. Zoom also allowed us to break into small discussion groups, which gave us a lot of flexibility on how best to present course material,” Fritzen said. Faculty also used Canvas and Panopto for recorded lectures and to present case studies.

“None of us had a lot of experience working with all these tools,” Fritzen said. “I had never done this. But we jumped into it and did our best to design a class that would work for our fellows.”

The fellows didn’t have any experience with the tools either, but they quickly caught on.

“Canvas, Slack and Zoom helped the group establish community among all of us, making it easier to learn,” said Abiola Ogunenika, program manager with the Ondo State Ministry of Health in Nigeria. “These tools facilitated group development faster, even while we were thousands of miles apart across our different countries.”

Several of the participants lived in countries without the robust communications networks found elsewhere, so choosing tools that didn’t need a lot of bandwidth was key.

“I think we are mostly amazed at the technology that was used to bring such a group together,” said Gloria Ntow-Kummi, with Ghana Health Service. “Even from our various countries, we were able to meet as a group to have good interaction. I know that even as the program is ending, we still have a platform that we can use to continue to interact and discuss issues for our common good.”

All that technology had a purpose, Fritzen said: improving the learning experience in a short-duration executive program that allowed students to learn from one another, bringing a great deal of value to participants.

“What I loved about the program is the mix of teaching us how to improve our leadership skills as well as our technical skills,” said Kenya’s Joanne Ondera, with the German Development Cooperation/GIZ-Health Sector Program. “We were able to teach each other and learn from the different experiences.”

“A big part of our mission is to help improve the quality of government, add value and fulfill our educational mission to train a new generation of dedicated public sector professionals,” Fritzen said. “We often do that with executive education, but it has certain limitations. We can’t reach everyone, it is expensive, and it is hard for those professionals who do participate to build relationships with others in their field, because classes are short and quite intensive.

“Despite the challenges, I think we used technology creatively to overcome some of the limitations of executive education,” he said. “More importantly, we discovered that quality programming can be delivered this way. And it is certainly not limited to executive education programs.”

Fritzen’s top tips for building a successful online executive education program — which can be applied to any type of online class:

Partner with like-minded UW groups working to improve online learning

Learning Technologies loves a challenge, Fritzen said, whether it is big or small. If you have a particular need but don’t know how to solve it, or you need to talk to someone about overcoming online teaching and learning challenges, give them a call. McKee agrees. “We are familiar with these tools and we can help you decide what can work for your class. We are here to help you.”

Choosing easy to use tools is key — not just for students but also faculty

Sometimes, the temptation is to throw the latest and most innovative tool at a problem, but Fritzen said that’s not the best approach. Because the University already has Canvas, a robust system that works with multiple apps, The Evans School chose simple tools that could be coupled with Canvas. The tools are easy to download, and easy for students and faculty to use, without spending too much time on training.

Be prepared for some chaos, and adjust to it

Connecting the fellows across several timelines with their instructors at the UW campus was a challenge.

“It took a while to make a one-hour class go smoothly,” Fritzen said. “People lost connections, others couldn’t hear their peers, and there was a lot of background noise. We had very chaotic and distracting early sessions, but it does settle down. People get used to the technologies and make it work.”

For the second cohort, Fritzen planned on using the first online session with the new group to troubleshooting technology and get everyone acquainted with the different tools. The program also is providing “concierge-level” IT support for all participants to improve their experience. That means one-on-one training as needed.

“You have to be ready to take a deep breath and roll with the punches,” Fritzen said.

Online tools may surprise you in many other ways

As many as 10 faculty members interacted with the fellows during the program, and its success has led to a lot of discussions on how to best use technology inside and outside the classroom — and to a wider acceptance of the tools within the Evans School.

“One of our lecturers utilized Zoom in a particularly useful way last quarter, piping in guest speakers and experts, and preparing students to ask questions,” said Molly Jay, chief digital officer at the Evans School. “The sessions were recorded and uploaded to Canvas for later viewing/reference.”

For Fritzen, Zoom is becoming a must-have technology. “We use Zoom for some faculty meetings at the Evans School, recording the sessions for those who can’t make it. Overall, this experience has made us more open to try new things.

“Students want to use technology, but we need to understand how best to harness it so we can improve the student experience,” Fritzen said.

Learn More:

Read UW-IT’s story on how the program came together.
See how Zoom, Slack and Canvas can help you bring the best in your students.
Contact Academic & Student Affairs, which helps faculty create a leading-edge learning experience.

Curriculum transformation: Fostering inclusive classrooms

Posted on May 1, 2017May 8, 2017

Curriculum transformation is a process that asks faculty members to take a critical stance on power and difference in the classroom, interweave multiple perspectives and integrate student voices and knowledge into the learning process. “The Diversity Blueprint and the Diversity Requirement set goals for change at the university level, but within each classroom, curriculum transformation is an opportunity for each instructor to create a thoughtful and equitable space for learning, with support from instructional experts,” says Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs.

Curriculum transformation has a long history at UW, including the Center for Curriculum Transformation which aided faculty from 1993 until 2013, largely under the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity. Today, the Center for Teaching & Learning in offers guidance in areas of inclusive teaching and other best practices.

Now, as then, academic units come to curriculum transformation with different needs and levels of understanding. Individual professors may vary in how comfortable they feel discussing racial equity or connecting it to their course topics. There are many ways to enact real change on a departmental level. As the School of Public Health and the iSchool demonstrate, open communication and mutual respect are key ingredients.

The School of Public Health: Adding a core competency on race and equity

In 2016, the School of Public Health passed a new school-wide competency specifically addressing the effects of racism on public health. India Ornelas, assistant professor of Health Services and chair of the School of Public Health Diversity Committee, dates the origin of this competency to a 2014 workshop that challenged participants to undo institutional racism. Many began looking critically at the school’s curriculum.

India Ornelas (far right), chair of the School of Public Health’s Diversity Committee, says that passing the new core competency was a collaborative effort involving many meetings, presentations and informal conversations to communicate the importance of the proposed addition. Photo: Filiz Efe McKinney.

The first result was a one-credit course that addresses the effects of race, power and privilege on public health — which remains popular, with a wait-list every quarter. Soon it became clear that a greater commitment was needed as Public Health students in the course advocated that the concepts in the class were equally vital to the school’s broader curriculum.

For more than a year, multiple committees vetted several draft proposals of the new competency. The process required stakeholder involvement at every level. In a coordinated leadership effort, the school-wide Diversity Committee and Curriculum Committee worked together for the first time.

“The big leap was going from something that was voluntary and largely master’s students to having all degree plans required to meet this [competency],” says Ornelas, who cites three key factors that helped the School of Public Health approve the competency.

Earn departmental buy-in by listening, educating and asking questions:
“It’s really important to bring people in from the beginning, and get the whole community behind you,” says Ornelas.

The school needed approval from all departments to pass the competency. Diversity Committee members met with departments, committees and individuals at every unit level.

Ornelas says, “We talked through all of these issues and asked departments, ‘Do you want your students to be able to work across difference? Do you want them to be able to understand racism as a social determinant of health? Do you want them to be able to work with diverse research teams?’ No matter what environment you’re working in, race and equity issues are happening, and your students will have to understand how racism works.”

““Recognize the means by which social inequities and racism, generated by power and privilege, undermine health.”

— School of Public Health new core competency

Involve students leaders as activists and counselors:
Students drove the work at all levels. Schoolwide activism helped push the competency forward, while individual student representatives advocated within department committees. In addition to higher-profile actions, many students provided feedback in discussions with staff and faculty.

Communicate about progress:
With five departments, the school’s approval process can be long and cumbersome. Ornelas recommends designating a web page to regularly update internal stakeholders. Colleges and schools undertaking similar efforts can provide transparent communications in-person and online to build trust in the process.

In the end, the school became one of the nation’s first public health programs to enact such a requirement. “I’m very proud of the stand that people in the curriculum committees and diversity committees took, saying that the importance here is naming racism, power and privilege,” says Ornelas.

Creating a National Impact

The work done in the UW School of Public Health influenced the Council on Education for Public Health, the accrediting body for schools that offer the master of Public Health degree. Now, as a requirement, all graduates of accredited schools will be able to “discuss the means by which structural bias, social inequities and racism undermine health and create challenges to achieving health equity at organizational, community and societal levels.”

The iSchool: Partnering For Inclusive Teaching

Cynthia del Rosario, diversity, equity and access officer, and leader of the iSchool’s Curriculum Transformation Project

Cynthia del Rosario, diversity, equity and access officer, leads the iSchool’s Curriculum Transformation Project. Undoing institutional racism requires honest self-reflection. Del Rosario knew that faculty would need trusted partners to turn to for support. As a result, she based the program around fostering mentoring relationships.

The project builds partnerships between faculty and community members who have expertise in diversity practices, using the iSchool’s alumni and network to identify potential experts. Each quarter, del Rosario recruits three to four experts who can help faculty integrate diversity into curricula, and she matches each expert with one or two faculty members based on areas of expertise and compatible learning styles.

Over the quarter, expert partners support faculty in planning and implementing ways to diversify their curriculum and make their classrooms more inclusive spaces. “We try to keep partners consistent [from year to year], so they understand our culture,” says del Rosario.

To create supportive partnerships:

Get everyone on the same page: Del Rosario schedules time for people to connect before the quarter and organizes activities to introduce concepts of microaggressions and privilege. This helps everyone develop shared understanding and common ground, even if participants have been through the program before. Then, instructors meet with their partners to look at how syllabi, course content, pedagogy, assignments and evaluation can be more inclusive. Together, they create an action plan and discuss potential challenges and opportunities.
Offer regular feedback: Partners observe the faculty twice, near the beginning and at the end of the quarter, and sometimes participate in class if the instructor agrees it’s appropriate. Throughout the quarter, partners are available to answer questions or discuss emerging situations. “If something happens in a class, the partners already have context,” says del Rosario, and together with the faculty member they can discuss issues that arise. That it’s a consistent partnership means that “if something happens in a class, the partners already have context.”
Reflect on lessons learned: At the end of the quarter, the partners and instructors discuss lessons learned. They can base their reflection around guidelines del Rosario developed, but she emphasizes flexibility and freedom. “We say: ‘Do it how it’s going to work for you.’ It’s not about what it looks like on paper, it is about how the partners can best work together to create a learning environment that engages diversity and fosters inclusive thinking.”

Workshops and trainings at the UW: Answering the call for change

Posted on April 30, 2017May 8, 2017

Conversations sparked by the launch of the Race and Equity Initiative in April 2015 found faculty and staff across the three campuses looking for ways to learn more and make positive change. As part of its objective to “confront individual bias and racism,” the initiative has worked to provide opportunities for self-reflection and personal learning.

Jeanette James, project manager, Race & Equity Initiative

A working group was tasked to develop a training program that would provide education and tools around cultural fluency, cross-cultural communications, systemic racism and bias. A pilot launched in spring 2016, and right away the demand exceeded capacity, with more than 450 staff and faculty participants. The planning group for the pilot then incorporated feedback and lessons learned into the next phase of workshops and trainings, designed to serve a greater number of faculty and staff in 2017.

“Our goal is to support staff in enacting changes in their own behaviors and in their own units, such as developing outreach and hiring practices that use this work, and to really be able to use this knowledge to make change wherever they are,” says Jeanette James, Race & Equity Initiative project manager.

Over 700 attendees this year

“We listened to a lot of students, faculty and staff who expressed a need for more education on these issues,” says James. “We want to be responsive to the needs of people who want to deepen individual learning.”

Student-support units that work most closely with students were offered the pilot program first. The trainings were created in partnership with Professional & Organizational Development, a unit of Human Resources, to tap into their training expertise. This allowed the program to offer more workshops at scale with an eye towards ensuring this expanded professional development work can be sustained through future Human Resources courses and offerings.

In total, 24 workshops were held across all three campuses between April and July 2016, and 22 more were conducted throughout winter and spring of 2017. Nearly 1,100 faculty staff will have been served by these trainings since the launch of the program in 2016.

All of the workshops are led by local experts in equity, diversity and inclusion. The trainers bring experience in working with the education and public sectors on topics such as cross-cultural communication, cognitive dissonance and implicit bias.

Meeting participants where they are — and inspiring action

The trainings were designed to appeal to those who are just entering the conversation while offering everyone, no matter their level of expertise, different opportunities to engage in fresh ways.

A variety of trainings are being offered for faculty and staff. Workshops are designed to appeal to those who are just entering the conversation while offering everyone, no matter their level of expertise, different opportunities to engage in discussions of equity, diversity and inclusion in fresh ways.

“Rosetta Lee’s session on cross-cultural communication was excellent,” says Justin Wadland, head of Media and Digital Collections at the UW Tacoma Library. “The training blended together research and scholarly literature, drew on various conceptual models and incorporated her personal experience.” Participants were introduced to key frameworks, terminology and concepts in order to evaluate their own biases and engage with honest personal reflection.

To help people open up, trainer Caprice Hollins wove personal narratives with history. This inspired thoughtful reflection through the lenses of race, class and other factors that shape our perspectives and biases. “If we aren’t identifying the ideas and unconscious biases we bring from the dominant culture’s norms and beliefs, we are not guiding students in ways that help them be effective in their field,” says Hollins. By the end of the training, faculty and staff reported feeling more confident in being able to recognize implicit bias, an important first step. “We have to begin to interact differently,” says Hollins.

Wadland took Hollins’ call to action to heart as he reflected on his experiences working with students in the UW Tacoma libraries. “I feel like the training helped me continue to see how, in my own position, I have an opportunity to learn from other people of backgrounds that are not my own,” he says. “The trainings work through misunderstandings and even conflict.”

More training options in person and on demand

Bias in systems: The planners behind the pilot program developed the next iteration of trainings and resources that was launched in February 2017, this time expanding the focus to explore how bias operates in larger systems as well as at the individual level. “We’ve received requests to focus not just on interpersonal issues, but on understanding institutional and systemic bias as well. So now in this next series we are bringing in trainers who are skilled at addressing the broad institutional issues,” says James.

On-demand resources: The new series was built upon the pilot’s earlier learning objectives by providing a deeper understanding of interpersonal and structural bias and emphasizing a shared language about bias and racism. Plans are also underway to expand the delivery methods to meet demand without being limited to the scheduling and physical constraints of an in-person workshop: videos, brown bag discussions and other accessible online resources will be added to help faculty and staff understand the issues.

Campus leaders learning from trainings

Jeanette James (right) meets with members of the Race & Equity Initiative subcommittee that coordinates workshops. Photo: Filiz Efe McKinney.

Recognizing the impact of individual leaders on institution-wide decisions, UW leaders are pursuing a broad range of trainings to deepen their knowledge at both the individual and structural level and reinforce the values of a diverse, inclusive university. Among those who have attended trainings are the Race & Equity Initiative steering committee, faculty leaders and facilitators, as well as University Advancement leadership. Plans are underway for more leaders and staff to participate in the coming months.

Considering the ultimate goals of the trainings, James says, “Individuals can’t change what they don’t know. The goal is to help people take the blinders off and let them see that they do have the power to make change. Then the question becomes, ‘how do we take what we know as leaders within organizations and make change that’s impactful across our three campuses?’”

The workshop and training organizers developed the series to empower staff and faculty. People can use this knowledge to make positive change wherever they are affecting outreach and hiring practices, reviewing policy, understanding our diverse student body or resolving interpersonal issues.

Learn more about trainings and additional learning resources on the leadership workshops page. Contact equity@uw.edu to request information about hosting a unit or departmental leadership workshop.

Human Health

Posted on October 12, 2016October 13, 2016

Over the last 25 years, we have seen some of the greatest advances in medicine in the history of humankind. In the next 25 years, the greatest transformations will come as a result of interdisciplinary collaborations in the areas of clinical care, public health interventions, public policy, technology and more.

Community engagement leads to new vision screening law | UW Bothell

The routine distance-vision eye test has long been a staple of public school education in the state of Washington. Yet near-vision problems have not traditionally received the same scrutiny. This will soon change thanks to a new law signed by Gov. Jay Inslee earlier this year. The law grew out of a vision and learning symposium organized in 2014 by Associate Professor Bill Erdly, who helped bring together the experts, advocates and legislators needed to collaboratively develop a solution to the shortcomings of the routine test.

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Reconnecting veterans to life through farming | Social Work

Christopher Brown, a three-time Marine combat veteran and master of social work graduate, created a sustainable local farming organization for veterans in the name of holistic mental health. Growing Veterans, a thriving nonprofit, seeks to transform the lives of veterans through satisfying work and an opportunity to reconnect with one another and their communities to help reduce feelings of isolation and prevent suicide.

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Developing a long-acting antiretroviral treatment for HIV | Pharmacy and Medicine

Current oral drug therapies for HIV can greatly reduce the presence of the virus in the blood stream. However, limitations prevent these therapies from reducing the presence of HIV in the tissues of a body, and to work in the blood stream, patients must strictly adhere to daily dosing regimens for the rest of their lives. To address these shortcomings, Professor Rodney J. Y. Ho, pharmacy, and Professor Ann Collier, medicine, have partnered to develop a new, seven-day long-lasting HIV therapy that seeks to overcome drug insufficiency in tissues while also improving patient adherence.

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Creating devices that reanimate paralyzed limbs | Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering

Researchers at the UW’s Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering are developing groundbreaking new medical devices intended to help restore function and mobility in individuals stricken by spinal cord injury or stroke. Through interdisciplinary collaboration, these researchers have developed implantable devices that can detect brain signals and transmit that information to other parts of the body’s nervous system. The center’s goal is to develop a successful demonstration of this concept in humans in the next five years, which will then allow regulatory approval to occur for wider dissemination.

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Decoding dyslexia with non-invasive brain imaging | Speech and Hearing Sciences

The brain has evolved over thousands of years to allow humans to communicate through language. Reading is a relatively new skill for the brain, however, which leads Assistant Professor Jason Yeatman to wonder if dyslexia is a byproduct of visual systems being wired slightly differently in some humans. With the aid of non-invasive brain imaging technology, Yeatman and his team are studying developing brains to identify the changes that occur as reading skills are required. Through this research, they hope to expand treatment options for dyslexia.

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Creating a mobile app that tests lung capacity | CoMotion, Computer Science, Electrical Engineering

People suffering from lung diseases in developing worlds often do not have a good way to track lung functioning without visiting the doctor. Through the work of UW researchers, many may soon be able to measure their lung function simply by blowing into any type of phone due to SpiroCall, a new health sensing tool, which was found to meet the medical community’s standard for accuracy. With this proof of concept in hand, the research team can now plan for additional data collection and determine how to best communicate results to patients.

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“I hope that my work advances interdisciplinary connections in support of legal and policy reforms that improve community health as broadly conceived, enhance the patient experience of care, and provide better value for our health care dollars.”

Sallie Thieme Sanford, Associate Professor, UW School of Law

“I am particularly enthusiastic about the opportunity to learn more about potential collaborations between the health sciences and the broader University community [through the Population Health Initiative].”

F. Bruder Stapleton, Professor and Chair of Pediatrics

“I hope the initiative will increase awareness of disparities in health, healthcare, and health-care access among different populations, and causes underlying these disparities.”

Ceci Giachelli, W. Hunter and Dorothy Simpson Endowed Chair and Professor Bioengineering

Environmental Resiliency

Posted on October 12, 2016October 13, 2016

There is no question that our environment and its resources impact human health and well-being. The exact extent of the impact, however, is not always clear. From energy production to pollution, from natural disasters to overfishing, the Population Health Initiative encourages connections across disciplines to seek a better understanding of environmental sustainability.

Connecting to nature is key for healthy urban living | Psychology and Environmental and Forest Services

UW researcher Peter Kahn says that city dwellers are unaware of how their minimal connection to nature is putting our health and the survival of wildlife and wild areas at great risk. Kahn coauthored a new book exploring how “environmental generational amnesia” is partly due to multiple generations shifting away from meaningful interactions with the great outdoors. But nature can be incorporated within cities, the authors say. “Cities designed well, with nature in mind and at hand, can be understood as natural, supportive of both ecosystem integrity and public health.”

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A groundbreaking concept for a fusion reactor could reduce our carbon footprint and change the energy game | Aeronautics and Astronautics

The cost of producing fusion power has traditionally not penciled out in comparison to current energy sources, placing this zero-emission power source out of reach for wide-scale development. UW researchers believe they have now designed a concept for fusion power built on existing technology that will render that traditional cost structure obsolete. With a successful prototype in hand, they are now turning to further development and expansion of the device to create the needed power output to be a viable replacement for the fossil fuels that endanger our planet’s health.

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UW develops earthquake early warning tools | Earth and Space Science

As populations continue to grow on the West Coast, earthquakes remain a top threat. At the White House Earthquake Resilience Summit in February 2016, the UW received new funding for early warning systems. The UW-based Pacific Northwest Seismic Network is helping develop ShakeAlert, an alert system that could save lives by triggering automated and human actions just before an earthquake hits. And in a partnership with the U.S. Geological Survey, UW researchers will examine how a network of sensors on the ocean floor can provide early warnings from the volatile Cascadia subduction zone.

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Restoring oysters in Puget Sound | Center for Urban Waters, UW Tacoma

When overfishing, polluted waters and shoreline changes led to the extinction of the Olympia oyster from Puget Sound, it changed the nature of our local ecosystem. UW Tacoma associate professor Bonnie Becker is leading undergraduate researchers in a collaborative effort to reintroduce the native oyster to its original environment. Her teams monitor microscopic larvae to identify sites where Olympia oysters can naturally seed the area and be self-sustaining. Reintroducing native oysters can improve the habitat for other plants and animals, including salmon prey, and help restore the natural balance of the sound for the health of our region.

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Clean, efficient cookstove can reduce pollution, illness, and early death | Mechanical Engineering

Smoke from open indoor cooking fires and cookstoves in developing countries is believed to cause millions of illnesses and premature deaths each year. Long journeys to gather all that fuel often expose adults and children to further dangers. To overcome these challenges, UW engineers partnered with the nonprofit BURN Design Lab to develop a much cleaner-
burning and more efficient cookstove, known as the Kuniokoa. This innovative stove will be manufactured by local workers in Nairobi, Kenya, and its designers believe the Kuniokoa will successfully reduce harmful particulate pollution by as much as 67 percent.

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Air pollution accelerates plaque build-up in arteries to heart | School of Public Health

Air pollution monitors like this tracked pollutants in more than 1,500 locations across six metro areas between 2005 and 2009. Then, researchers developed computational models to generate accurate pollution concentrations affecting people’s health. — Air pollution monitors like this tracked pollutants in more than 1,500 locations across six metro areas between 2005 and 2009. Then researchers developed computational models to generate accurate pollution concentrations affecting people’s health.

Researchers have long understood that lengthy exposure to air pollution is directly linked to an increased risk of heart disease. Thanks to the result of a 10-year study led by Professor Joel Kaufman, we now have a greater understanding of the biological responses to pollution that lead to heart disease, and that air pollution at levels — even below regulatory standards — can accelerate the hardening of human arteries. The study’s results are being used to push for new action in controlling pollution levels worldwide.

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“I hope that the Population Health Initiative encourages and supports collaboration across disciplines and across sectors towards this common goal and further, that having a deliberate and sustained focus on population health will amplify our impact.”

Emiko A. Tajima
Associate Professor and Associate Dean for Academic Affairs
School of Social Work

“Through this initiative, I hope that we educate all our students to understand, integrate and apply population health principles and knowledge in their personal and professional lives regardless of whether they choose a career in this field.”

David Reyes
Assistant Professor
Nursing & Healthcare Leadership Program
UW Tacoma

“Through this initiative I hope that faculty, researchers, and students across units can work together to harness our world-class research and teaching and commitment to community service to improve the health of populations in the United States and across the world.”

Hedwig Lee
Associate Professor
Sociology

Social and Economic Equity

Posted on October 11, 2016October 13, 2016

Social and economic inequity has lasting effects on societies and the health of populations. UW scholars from a wide range of disciplines are addressing equity in innovative ways. Solutions range from addressing income inequality to education quality, poverty to criminal justice reform, and many other equity issues that directly and indirectly affect human health and well-being.

Minimum Wage Study examines the impact of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage | Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and Social Work

Since Seattle passed legislation providing for an increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the nation has been watching and waiting to see the effects on the local economy and quality of life. Tracking these effects and more is the Minimum Wage Study, a five-year research effort led by investigators from the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance with the School of Social Work.

The team seeks to answer such questions as, does a higher minimum wage improve quality of life measures, including health, nutrition, and family daily life? As more cities anticipate hikes in their minimum wage, this research will inform future decisions about the effects on workers, their families, employers, and the community.

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Innovative, low cost NIFTY™ Cup seeks to save millions of lives | Dentistry

Each year, there are millions of babies in developing countries born prematurely or with oral clefts who struggle to breast feed. These babies are often at high risk for malnourishment, infection, and often death. Thanks to Christy McKinney, a clinical assistant professor of oral health sciences, a new feeding aid is now readying for widespread distribution across Africa.

In partnership with PATH and Seattle Children’s, McKinney developed the NIFTY™ cup (Neonatal Intuitive Feeding TechnologY), a low-cost silicone cup with a small reservoir and spout that allows mothers to easily and safely feed these vulnerable newborns. This innovative intervention has the potential to solve a major global challenge, which could save millions of lives.

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States with punitive justice systems have higher rates of foster care, study finds | Sociology

Why do some states place more kids into foster care than others? A new study connects the hidden dots between a state’s approaches to social problems and their rate of foster care. Author Frank Edwards is a UW doctoral student in sociology who found that states with more punitive criminal justice systems remove children from their homes far more frequently than states with more generous welfare programs. This means that two states with similar rates of child abuse and neglect could have very different rates of foster care entry, significantly impacting the futures of already vulnerable children.

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Skies Over Seattle: Theater piece drawn from student experiences volunteering for U District social service entities | Drama

What does it mean to be homeless in the U-District? Drama students created “Skies Over Seattle,” original theater pieces inspired by the intersection of volunteerism and artistic creation in pursuit of understanding that question. Graduate students in acting, design and directing, as well as several undergraduates, volunteered for three community organizations that serve the homeless around the UW’s Seattle campus.

Over the course of a year, their lessons learned and questions asked inspired the students to write, design and perform original pieces that challenge assumptions about the communities that share the space beneath one sky. “We want the community to know that we’re not giving them a voice — they already have a voice,” says AJ Friday, a student in the Professional Actor Training Program.

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New UW program aims to foster better education for Native learners | Education

Education is a key component of lifelong health, yet the underrepresentation of Native American teachers across the United States often negatively impacts young Native students. The new Native Education Certificate seeks to address that challenge by providing a knowledge base for non-Native teachers to create a culturally relevant curriculum for Native students. Mixing online learning and community projects, the 10-unit program is designed to reduce the disconnect between non-Native teachers and Native children, making public schools more inclusive.

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Map-a-thon collaboration helps sidewalks be accessible | TCAT and DSSG

Inadequate sidewalks and navigational infrastructure can be a nuisance to anyone, but for people with mobility limitations or low vision, these conditions can not only feel insurmountable, but become hazardous. The Taskar Center for Accessible Technology and the OpenSidewalks team from the UW eScience Institute’s Data Science for Social Good program held a Map-a-thon to address these issues. Data collected by Seattle community members will be integrated with the OpenStreetMap open source platform to offer more robust sidewalk information and navigational assistance for those with limited mobility.

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UW Nurse Camp inspires underrepresented high school students to become the next generation of nurses | Nursing

Less than 20 percent of the U.S. nursing workforce are from low income or underrepresented backgrounds — yet the patients those future nurses will serve are increasingly likely to be minorities. The UW School of Nursing is widening the pathway to nursing for minority students through the UW Nurse Camp. Each summer, high school students get hands-on experience in the world of nursing. Not only do they gain insight into medical career options, many begin to see earning a degree as a real option for the first time, something many low-income or underrepresented students may struggle to visualize.

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“This initiative will provide the activation energy needed to facilitate real impact when it comes to tackling key challenges that currently compromise population health.”

Alison Cullen
Professor, Evans School of Public Policy & Governance

Capstone projects as opportunities for real-life applications

Posted on May 12, 2015September 30, 2015

The Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Environmental Studies Program at the Program on the Environment are interdisciplinary programs with capstones experiences that require students to work with active practitioners as they pull knowledge from a wide variety of fields to produce multidimensional research projects. In both undergraduate programs, faculty collaborate with practitioners so that students gain direct insight into the professional world through on- or off-campus experiences. Ultimately, students learn about finding a personally fulfilling career and discussing their skills and real-world experience during interviews and networking.

The Jackson School Task Force Capstone

The Task Force capstone (JSIS 495) in the Jackson School gives students a taste of global affairs work with the guidance of policy professionals as a complement to academic knowledge. Students work in teams, or task forces, of 15 to 17 people to study a global policy question, develop a substantial research brief, and arrive at a set of policy recommendations that would be timely and relevant to a variety of organizations, similar to presidential commissions. Topics have ranged from climate change policies to redressing human rights violations in El Salvador, and more. “When I started directing the Task Force program eight years ago, we noticed that while students were academically prepared, they were missing some methodological skills,” says Professor Sara Curran, chair of International Studies. In response, the program developed a new prerequisite, the Policy Memo Workshop led by Philip Wall, affiliate professor and a retired senior Foreign Service officer, to teach students the skill of condensing 25-page studies into one-page summaries. Because Task Forces operate on a very tight deadline at a different pace than a one-quarter class, Wolfram Latsch, director of the Jackson School Academic Services, developed a student handbook that lays out roles, responsibilities and timelines so that team members understand what is expected and why their work matters. With these explicit tools provided by the School, “We didn’t have any surprises we weren’t prepared for,” observed Jwanah Qudsi, who participated in the 2014 “Drone Wars” Task Force her senior year.

Introducing students to professional expectations for careers in international affairs in two critical ways

When students learn directly from practitioners — instructors range from elected officials to retired Foreign Service officers — they experience a new perspective and are often treated more as colleagues working towards a shared goal. “We deeply appreciated getting that insider point-of-view of what it’s really like,” says Qudsi about working directly with her instructor, U.S. Congressman Adam Smith.
Students learn to manage both time and people while balancing different roles and deadlines for the group and as individuals. “Students are used to controlling their own space, so they have to adjust to this lack of control,” says Latsch. “It can be disorienting.”

Task Force Evaluation Day is designed to add additional layers of real-life experiences

The culmination of the Task Force experience is an in-person briefing to an external, expert evaluator. “This intense engagement requires professional preparation and quick thinking, as the students combine a polished presentation with on-the-spot answers to critical questions from the expert evaluator,” says Curran. Latsch points out how the evaluation “again mirrors the professional world, as one’s work will often be more visible and persuasive if an articulate argument is matched with evidence.” At the formal closing dinner, evaluators and instructors often continue discussing the reports with Task Force members, exposing students to a new dimension of professional conversation and social networking. “It’s given me an appreciation for how hard it can be to get policy passed,” Qudsi observes. Wall believes the combination of thorough academic preparation with a real-life simulation is essential to preparing students for a wide variety of careers. “I have yet to meet a fellow Foreign Service officer, active or retired, whose response to my description of the Task Force capstone was anything other than ‘I wish I could have taken that course,’” says Wall.

Task Force 2015 students after their presentation on reforming U.S. foreign aid policy. U.S. Congressman Adam Smith (back row, far left), flew to Seattle from Washington, D.C. each week to serve as their instructor, and Rajiv Shah, former USAID Administrator (center), was the final evaluator. Photo courtesy of the Jackson School of International Studies.

Environmental Studies Capstone Experience

Through a three-quarter Capstone Experience course series (ENVIR 490, 491, 492), Environmental Studies students gain valuable hands-on experience, explore meaningful career possibilities and develop professional skills. The Capstone Experience is built around a quarter-long internship in which students produce a research project and a portfolio of professional writings supported by faculty and on-site mentors. Capstone partners range from community-based nonprofits, private sector organizations, state and federal government agencies, and faculty research projects on topics ranging from e-waste to food security to environmental education in the digital age.

The Pre-Capstone Seminar prepares students for the Capstone Experience through targeted academic study and professional development

Because many students have not held internships before, the seminar introduces them to the job search process with sessions on résumés, cover letters and ways to adapt their “pitch” for an informal job fair or formal interview to land their top choice project. “Once they’ve secured that internship, that’s when we think about how that hands-on professional experience is going to relate to their scholarly work, and apply it in an academic setting,” says Capstone Instructor Sean McDonald.

During the Capstone Experience students adjust to two roles — scholars and professionals: As scholars, the students develop insightful research questions based on their hands-on experience and assemble a thorough bibliography under the guidance of a faculty adviser. As professionals, they acquire project management skills and report to their site supervisor with specific project deliverables and deadlines while learning to navigate a professional work environment.
Throughout the internship, site partners and faculty mentors provide support and encouragement to students. “They remind students to communicate regularly about their progress and any challenges, and to not be afraid to ask for help,” says Clare Ryan, director of the Program on the Environment.

Reflection — on the process and the results — is built in to multiple assignments

Students synthesize and reflect on their experience with a variety of writing projects. Assignments include:

Writing memos, which pushes students to succinctly summarize their progress and research while honing their professional writing techniques
Reporting research findings in an academic analysis paper, akin to a senior thesis
Summarizing their experience in public-facing integrative essays
Documenting and contemplating the process in personal journals
Sharing updates with peers through informal discussion on a Tumblr class blog while strengthening their network of future colleagues

Students learn to communicate to multiple audiences

Students present their research to site partners, potential employers and a general audience at the culminating Capstone Symposium. At this point, students understand how their experience relates to the broader context of their Environmental Studies education and their own future goals, and are able to market their capstone experience for their job search or graduate school applications. “They start to see a connection between what’s going on in the classroom and what’s going on outside of it,” says McDonald.

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how to link academic passion to life and careers.

A multi-faceted approach to helping students build networks before graduation

Posted on May 12, 2015September 30, 2015

Faculty in the Department of Communication are connecting students with alumni and opportunity to experience real-life work spaces

“It’s not just deciding what your career’s going to be, it’s who do you want to be? What are the attributes you want to develop in yourself? What, then, in your professional toolbox do you develop to contribute to that?”

**Nancy Rivenburgh**
Professor, Communication

When the Communication faculty asked themselves if they were meeting the new needs of students, they realized they often saw students failing to connect their education with professional development.

“Students who are graduating now are entering such a different work place than we grew up in,” says Professor Nancy Rivenburgh. “There are whole new ways of thinking about career opportunities, and it’s important to stay up to date with that.”

Many students weren’t understanding how the creative and critical thinking skills developed in the classroom would actually apply in a work environment. Many also seemed unaware of the incredible variety of careers beyond traditional paths for which a communication degree prepares graduates.

“We were seeing a gap,” says Chair David Domke. “So we asked, ‘What is a 21st century approach to student development?’”

Based upon this self-assessment, the department inaugurated programming changes in 2013 and 2014 that seek to integrate academic learning with career strategy and leadership development. The new approach included remodeling a new collaboration space and adding a new director of student leadership to launch a Career Kickstart program and revamp their internship program.

Communication faculty also saw this as an opportunity to improve student engagement inside the classroom. “I have pure academic goals, of course, but students are motivated if they also see the relevance of what they do to post-University life,” says Rivenburgh. The faculty found that student motivation benefits most when programming is guided by two themes: connecting students with professionals and providing opportunities to experience real work environments.

Linking alumni to students facilitates meaningful, often lasting, connections

*“Students a lot of times will only think there’s a small range of jobs they can have, but then they go on our trips and see there are so many different roles at these companies.”*

**Arianna Aldebot**
Director of Student Leadership, Communication

Interactions with department alumni offer current students an approachable, accessible introduction to the job market in their field. The department involves alumni in several ways, including:

Communication Alumni Board: Members offer real-world feedback and programming suggestions based on the latest market needs in their fields. “They’re constantly thinking about what kinds of opportunities we can give to students. They know what’s trending,” says Arianna Aldebot, the new director of student leadership who serves as staff liaison to the Board.

Professional Development Workshops: Alumni volunteers focus on specific skills, such as pitching a story or tailoring a résumé for a specific job. “The workshops are so beneficial,” says junior Thomas Nguyen. “I think it’s something a lot more students should take advantage of.”

Alumni Database: When students have a career goal in a specific city, they can turn to Victoria Sprang, the alumni outreach manager, who recommends appropriate contacts for informational interviews and possible professional mentors.

Mentor Chats: Small group sessions offered nearly every week host alumni discussing how their studies and activities at UW helped launched their careers. “I want the students to feel like it’s more intimate, so they get comfortable asking questions,” says Aldebot. “The mentors like it as well because they feel like they get to really connect with the students.”

Beyond inspiration, alumni can also offer the kind of one-on-one mentoring that is invaluable to nervous or curious students. “We’re meeting people who had experiences we can relate to — they took the same classes, worked at The Daily. Hearing their stories fueled me to want to do better, knowing these people did it, and so can I,” says Nguyen. “I know I can go to them for advice.”

Career Exploration trips are high-impact experiences

Career Exploration trips started in 2013 with visits to Los Angeles and New York City, and day trips to businesses and media outlets around Seattle. Aldebot and Sprang pack the agendas with a variety of meetings, from a general alumni mixer to structured roundtables with professionals who speak about their companies and the range of communication jobs. From the senior editor of a fashion magazine to chief digital officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the exposure to active professionals and settings helps students make informed choices about their futures.

*“It’s so valuable getting experience while still in college because you really get to put into practice what you learn in the classroom.”*

**Ashley Walls**
Junior, Journalism major

“Initially, I was hoping to be a features writer for a large newspaper outlet,” says Ashley Walls, a junior who went on the first trip to New York in 2013. After touring ESPN and meeting a range of people in communications there, she shifted her focus. “Now, I want to be a community relations director for a professional sports franchise, helping to establish partnerships between teams and nonprofit organizations, and encourage community engagement,” she says.

Experiencing the environment of a job market first-hand also helps students narrow the field for their job search. Nguyen explains, “I know students who started the trip thinking they would like to work in New York City. It saved them so much time when they realized how that market, and such a drastic change, wasn’t right for them.”

Career planning through a course offers more structure to students who need it

The department has also been updating COM 494: Careers in Communication. “We wanted something in the curriculum that gives students a chance to think concretely about applying their University learning to a career environment,” says Domke. “Sometimes students want to dive deep over several weeks in a group setting to process what it means to even think about a career.”
Today’s robust programming now delivers several explicit options to students. Many students make the most of a few workshops or mentor connections, while others find that visiting work spaces or having the guidance of an entire course has the most impact for planning their future.

Thomas Nguyen’s Career Exploration trip: “It kickstarted my momentum”

“Going to Deutsch Advertising, in New York City, was my aha moment where I connected everything I was learning in the classroom with my interests. Hearing from their planning director, I realized it was all the things I really wanted to do in one position. Before the trip, I was everywhere — interested in marketing, event coordinating, television. After the trip I found out I was really interested in advertising.

“Learning about different industries and work cultures and thinking about what kind of life we want helped me make a mental action plan. I know what internships to look into now, and I’m tailoring my class schedule to really build myself up for the career I know I want.”

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how to link academic passion to life and careers.

How the strengths of an artist apply to the 21st century job search

Posted on May 12, 2015September 30, 2015

Students cultivate self-reflection, problem solving and critical thinking in UW Dance Program’s Senior Seminar, readying them to articulate their experience as a dancer to prepare them for success in the job market

Graduates from the UW Dance Program pursue careers in arts leadership, nonprofits, teaching, medicine, movement therapy and more. Since many students double or even triple major, dance alumni enter the job market with a high level of skill in giving and receiving feedback that is valuable in a wide range of team and coaching environments. Faculty also focus on cultivating self-reflection, creative problem solving, critical thinking and a fearless willingness to try new things. Dance majors can then bring these attitudes to their job search, which gives them a jump-start in the Dance 480 Senior Seminar.

The seminar guides students to analyze both what they want from a career and how their individual strengths as an artist will match their aspirations. In the dancer’s tradition of experiential learning, they also spend nearly a full day on a job shadow. As they summarize what they learned in the class, students practice verbalizing the meaning of their personal experience with dance, a critical but challenging skill for dancers.

Thinking critically about CVs and personal strengths

*“My senior seminar on career preparation starts at 8:30 in the morning, and I can tell from the lack of absenteeism that the students want to get something out of it.”*

**Hannah Wiley**
Professor, Dance

Dance professor Hannah Wiley teaches the program’s senior seminar. She invites alumni and dance professionals to speak with her class about careers, and asks guests to make their curriculum vitae available ahead of time so that the class can analyze them. “They see how these professionals present themselves, and it helps the students shape how they will want to be presented,” says Wiley. After a guest lecturer’s visit, Wiley asks students to discuss what they learned from the content of the presentation and the way the visitor described his or her knowledge and skills.

Through this exercise, “I figured out how to explain the ways my public health degree relates to my dance degree,” says Sean O’Bryan, a senior double-majoring in dance and public health. “At first I didn’t think cover letters were that important, but now I see how I can represent my personality and accomplishments in them. I think it makes me stand out.”

Job shadowing helps students find the right professional fit

After learning about different careers from guests, students in the senior seminar choose a job to shadow. This offers students more nuanced insight into fields they’re interested in exploring. “I don’t know any job where you’d get any real sense of what it’s like in an hour,” says Wiley. “If a job is boring to you, you’re not going to figure that out in an hour, but you’ll figure it out in six.” Shadowing has helped dance students discover what they like and, just as usefully, what they don’t. “There have been some pretty amazing things that have happened,” says Wiley. “Like, a student going to shadow a first grade teacher and realizing, ‘I could never do that.’ But another student saw first graders using dance throughout their day and thought it was the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen!”

*“If they fall on their face, we’re there to help them figure out what to do next. It’s so key to them feeling like they can make their way through the world.”*

**Juliet McMains**
Associate Professor and Donald E. Petersen Endowed Fellow, Dance

Meaningful reflection aids purposeful career decisions

Students give a final presentation in which they reflect on their professional skills, how they expect to apply their personal strengths to the career they plan to pursue, and how what they learned from their job shadow affected their career plans.

“I ask them ‘why’ a lot,” says Wiley. “If they’re applying to medical school, they present to us on why they chose one school over another one.” Wiley says reflection helps students gain a sense of purpose and empowerment that they are in control of their own future, and know that they have skills to accomplish their goals.

The presentation also forces students to verbalize why dance and artistry matter to them. “It’s important that all of us in this field learn to talk about dance because talking isn’t how we relate to it, but it’s how we relate to other people about it,” Wiley explains. “The idea is to practice that skill.”

*“Often students who are double-majoring learn more about creativity here, then suddenly realize ‘Oh, I am creative in math, I just never thought of it that way.’”*

**Jennifer Salk**
Program Director and Associate Professor, Dance

Pushing students to take risks can lead to surprising results

The dance faculty are constantly encouraging students to try something new, from experimenting with a different shoulder movement to applying for a dream job. “You have to try things,” says Siena Dumas Ang, who is triple majoring in dance, math and computer science. She says her dance training make her more willing to spend the time necessary to experiment in her other studies. “You might need to spend five hours writing code to see if it works, and a lot of people don’t want to spend that time, but in dance you just have to try a lift to know if it works.”

The results of trying something new or uncomfortable often surprises the students. Wiley pushes her seminar students by having them write a tailored cover letter for their dream job, even if they feel it is too far out of reach and don’t intend to send it. One recent graduate took a chance, submitted her dream-job application and was accepted for a year-long internship at the Kennedy Arts Center, which led to a position with the prestigious Dance USA. “It makes a difference to them to have someone say, ‘Yes, you can do that job, why wouldn’t you apply?’” notes Wiley.

The confidence to know when to lead and when to follow

The collaborative, interdependent environment of dance mirrors professional team settings in many ways. Both require a team player who knows her own strengths, how her performance fits in to the bigger picture, how other people rely on her, and when to step forward as a leader to give direction or even a solo performance. Moving between these roles requires a team member to be comfortable with giving and receiving objective feedback as well as a high level of self-awareness, which are nurtured through reflection and other exercises in the dance program.

Dumas Ang summarizes her experiences learning these skills with dance: “It’s about discovering what kind of artist you are, from the theoretical side and the practical side, blending it all and becoming somebody who is confident in who you are.”

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how to link academic passion to life and careers.

Dispelling the myth of the unemployable humanities major

Posted on May 12, 2015September 30, 2015

Through the History Fellows Program, faculty in the History Department are helping undergraduates realize the wide variety of career options open to them

*“It’s a very collaborative endeavor — building connections in the community for internships, and developing a really solid, well-organized curriculum.”*

**Adam Warren**
Director of Undergraduate Studies and Associate Professor, History,

Historians spend a great deal of time separating fact from fiction as they dive into myths and misinterpretations of the past. Now, through a mix of academics and professional engagement in the History Fellows Program, the UW History Department is dispelling the modern myth that a history degree is professionally limiting by helping undergraduates realize the wide variety of options open to them.

Launched in 2013, the History Fellows Program is open to junior and senior majors who apply for a three-quarter sequence of classes and workshops, culminating with an internship.

Faculty took the lead in this effort. “We’re confronting head-on the assumption that a history degree leads to nothing,” says Adam Warren, associate professor and director of Undergraduate Studies. Warren and his colleagues had noted the trend of students taking courses they see as ‘employable’ at the expense of indulging their curiosity and pursuing their passions. “It doesn’t have to be an either/or situation,” he says.

Faculty and staff collaborated to create programming to complement students’ academic coursework. “We wanted something in tandem with the academics they’re doing, and not imposing itself into the curriculum, because we don’t want our faculty to re-adjust how they teach history,” says Matt Erickson, the department’s director of Academic Services. “But we needed students to think concurrently about professional development while in their undergraduate career.”

Tailoring curriculum with the Career Center

“The real point is not to funnel our students into traditional places that history students go, but for them to realize that they’re getting very adaptable skills that apply in all sorts of different career and professional settings.”

**Jon Olivera**
History Fellows Program co-manager and Undergraduate Adviser, History

The department hired doctoral candidate Michael Aguirre to lead the History Fellows Program with Undergraduate Adviser Jon Olivera.

They reached out to Patrick Chidsey, a counselor in the Career Center, and together they developed a curriculum specifically for history majors.

The History Fellows Program focuses on placing each student’s career goal at the forefront. The first step is helping students identify their strengths and see how they relate to future options. “Especially in humanities where that path is less obvious, we want students to develop pride in the choices they’ve made, to recognize the value in what they’ve done inside and outside the classroom and to see the interrelatedness of it all,” says Chidsey, who was a history major himself.

Graduates of the History Department have gone on to jobs with Google, The Brookings Institute, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the National Park Service, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI) and the Alaska Center for Energy and Power.

Peers help each other articulate unique skills with a new lens

In their first quarter, History Fellows build career skills through workshops on writing strong résumés, practicing interview skills, and expanding networks through informational interviews and social media. The sessions are purposefully structured for small group work.

“During the résumé workshop, students learned a lot from each other about presenting their skills in an attractive and concise way. If there isn’t something that catches an employer’s eye in about four seconds, they’ll move on. Even I edited my résumé after that!”

**Michael Aguirre**
History Fellows Program co-manager and Doctoral Candidate, History

“Small groups allow students to relate to one another, share the same concerns and push others to realize individual skills and accomplishments,” says Chidsey. “The intimacy to let down walls, challenge each other or brainstorm in a vulnerable way is important.” As they work together, each student builds confidence and practices articulating the skills gained from academic accomplishments such as writing major research papers.

“Sometimes you need somebody else on the outside to see your strengths. I believe we all left that workshop thinking, ‘Wow, we’re history rock stars,’” says Debra Pointer, a senior who was in the first History Fellows cohort. That confidence, along with support from program staff, helped her land an internship working in the archives at Planned Parenthood of the Greater Northwest in spring 2014.

Career fairs are a transformative experience

The Fellows program provides a framework for history undergraduates to articulate skills as humanists with their strengths in information literacy, critical thinking, cultural understanding and more. Even when faced with position descriptions that never ask for a history degree, the Fellows learn how to adapt and tailor their pitch.

Students are then required to put their freshly polished résumés to good use by attending at least two career fairs to gain practice. “I wanted them to immerse themselves in the experience and see what the competition is,” says Aguirre. “It was really eye-opening for the students.”

Pointer notes that the experience was challenging but ultimately helped each of them build confidence. “It’s hard to sell yourself. But you have the skills. It’s about finding your way to talk about what you can do,” she says.

Internships connect academics with careers before students graduate

Skills gained in the first two quarters are put in practice by spring quarter, when many students land internships. The program’s faculty and staff work to give students meaningful options, although they also encourage students to find new opportunities that suit their interests.

“A lot of people have the perception of ‘Oh, you’re a history major, does that mean that you’re going to be a teacher?’ And I say, ‘No, you can do a lot of things with a history degree, actually.’”

**Molly Malone**
Senior, History major

Senior Molly Malone, whose spring 2014 internship at the Labor Archives of Washington at the University of Washington inspired her to pursue master’s degrees in History and Archives and Records Management, is a strong advocate of these experiential learning opportunities. “I tell people all the time that they should do an internship,” Malone says.

“It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Studying the past, looking to the future: “So much of what we are doing is breaking down myths and getting history majors to realize they have skills to bring to the table, even in a supposedly technology-driven world,” Aguirre observes.

Through small-group workshops, networking practice and internships, the Fellows emerge more confident in themselves and their ability to find a fulfilling career after studying their passion.

“I followed my heart with my history degree,” says Pointer. “I would love to see all history majors know they have skills that mean something.”

Learn More

Read the full Provost report on how to link academic passion to life and careers.