Mahika Malladi knocked on an apartment door in Kirkland last summer and waited patiently for the resident to answer, hoping to talk about the candidate for city council whose campaign Malladi was leading.
As Malladi stood outside, she noticed an Algerian flag hanging in the window. Malladi, then a first-year public policy and public service major, had just learned about the history of Algeria in an Honors Program course called “The End of Empire.”
When the resident opened the door, Malladi shared what she knew about Algeria and formed a connection with this resident right away. By the end of their conversation, Malladi had answered the residents’ questions about Shilpa Prem, the candidate Malladi was supporting, and had heard more about their experience in the community.
“Interacting with voters — young and elderly, educated and learning, passionate and apathetic — was such a lovely experience,” Malladi said. “I’ve come to realize that the eloquence, or lack thereof, of residents cannot quite capture their love for their own city and their hope that there might be a council member who would exemplify the values and hopes of their home. It was an honor and enthusiastic moment to let them know who I believed would do that job.”
While most new students at the UW spend their first quarter learning the campus, adjusting to college and making new friends, Malladi, ’28, spent her first quarter leading Prem’s campaign.
Between classroom discussions and studying for exams, Malladi was knocking on doors across Kirkland in the rain, the cold and the heat. Between writing papers and getting acclimated to a new school, Malladi was prepping Prem to talk to high schoolers about her campaign.
For Malladi, leading the campaign for Prem was an opportunity to better her community through education and communication. She saw firsthand how a simple conversation can be enough to break down differences.
“Politics are inherently greater than the individual,” said Malladi, an Interdisciplinary Honors student who recently received a Randolph Preston Pillow Scholarship. “Our shared love for who we are and who we want to become is stronger than ostensible differences that we too often focus upon and isolate — listening, learning and sharing might be all that it takes.
A passion for making a difference
Before Malladi even entered the UW, she was passionate about politics.
In high school, she served as the chapter four board president of the Washington Youth Alliance, a statewide youth-led organization that allows young people to engage with policy and government. Through this work, Malladi testified in front of the Washington State Legislature on a number of bills, including one to limit where firearms can be carried across the state.
That experience taught her how impactful testifying at a state and local level can be.
“If you’re interested in voicing a particular concern, I so recommend testifying,” she said. “It seems scary, but I promise it’s not.”
After she graduated high school, Malladi took an internship with U.S. Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., where she started canvassing and phone-banking for candidates that DelBene was supporting. Through that work, she connected with Prem, who later asked Malladi to help run her campaign.
When she got to the UW, Malladi jumped right into programs that helped her move toward her goal of making a difference in the community. She became a research assistant with Ola Pasifika where she helped study American Pacific Islanders’ relationship with health and wellness.
She also joined UW’s Sisterhood Initiative, a program that she “absolutely adores” because of its work amplifying the leadership of women of color undergraduates by supporting their academic, personal and professional journeys through community.
Support for learning outside the classroom
Malladi’s first class at the UW was an Honors course titled “End of Empire,” taught by Kyle Haddad-Fonda, a part-time lecturer in the Department of History.
Before the start of the class, Malladi mentioned to Haddad-Fonda that she would be working on Prem’s campaign throughout the quarter.
Haddad-Fonda asked Malladi if she would share that experience with her classmates. She used the opportunity to talk about how students can vote, how important it is for young people to use their voice and why they should drop off ballots in drop boxes rather than in the mail during the government shutdown.
“We’re the smallest demographic that engages in voting,” she said. “I really hope that changes. Voting is one of the most important mechanisms for upholding values in our community.”
By the end of that first class, she had gained two new canvassers — and soon-to-be friends — for her campaign. That experience was the first of many impactful moments in Malladi’s Honors courses, which she said were often her most valuable classes because of how small and personal they felt. It was clear that Honors cared about her learning outside of the classroom, too, Malladi said.
“The power of education, particularly through that Honors class, really enabled me to make interpersonal connections,” Malladi said. “I credit that entirely to Honors.”
‘Politics impacts every sector of our lives’
Malladi’s early involvement in politics wasn’t necessarily intentional, she said, but as she started to understand more about her experience as a woman of color and the ideologies that she holds, she started to recognize the importance of being involved.
“The identities that I hold are so important to who I am, and I want to make sure others have the same access and support as I do,” she said.
Trying to make a change at the federal level can sometimes feel fruitless, she said, but there are so many other ways to make a change. “Local efforts are what sustain communities, but local politics are often ignored,” she said.
For Malladi, those local efforts could include volunteering at a Seattle-based nonprofit organization that interests you or testifying in front of your local city council or school board.
It could also be simply engaging with businesses on the Ave or talking to people in your community, she said.
“This is your time to learn, not just in the classroom, but also about the community, about the environment we’re in,” she said. “Politics impacts every sector of our lives.”
As Malladi thinks about what might follow her undergraduate years, she knows she wants to continue making a difference. Her plan right now is to go to law school. She is interning in the Office of the U.S. Attorney Western District of Washington in the Criminal Division.
Regardless of where she ends up, she plans to continue educating her neighbors, her friends and her classmates on the importance of being involved in your community.
“We change the world by changing where our focus lies and I’ve found that education is a method of shifting focus to issues that I’ve found necessitate it,” she said.
‘It wasn’t fruitless’
On election night, Malladi sat with Prem and her team and refreshed the King County election results page.
By the end of that first night, Prem was trailing behind her opponent, but Malladi knew the fight wasn’t over yet. For days, she checked the updated results every night until later that week, Prem had taken the lead.
By 650 votes, Prem had become the first South Asian woman to win a spot on Kirkland City Council, and Malladi had helped lead her there.
She thought back to all of the doors she knocked on, all of the voters she talked to. All of that door-knocking, strategizing and educating had worked, she realized.
“The nature of canvassing is tedious,” Malladi said, “but I really started to see how impactful it could be. It wasn’t fruitless. Fighting for who you believe in and loving your community never could be.”
About the Honors Program
Through both Interdisciplinary Honors and Departmental Honors pathways, the UW Honors Program offers students the opportunity to dig deeper into their education with specific courses, experiential learning and critical reflection. Students who earn Interdisciplinary Honors, like Malladi, spend time connecting their education to other areas on campus and their life. Students who earn Departmental Honors dive deep into their major with specific courses, research and cohorts. Both pathways give students the opportunity to learn across disciplines and connect with peers and faculty that they may not have otherwise.
Donations to the Honors Program allows the director to support strategic program initiatives that enhance student learning opportunities through leadership, research and community engagement.