Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor offered his thoughts on today’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Links to President Cauce’s statement and resources are also available here.
Author: Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Reviewed 9/22
2017 UAA Staff Awardees Announced
Congratulations to the 2016-17 Undergraduate Academic Affairs staff recognition awardees. Selected for their dedication to supporting UAA’s mission of creating innovative academic experiences for undergraduates, these six UAA staff members made an indelible impact on UW students, faculty and staff.
And the awardees are…
Award for Excellence
- Aley Mills Willis, director of academic services, Honors Program
- Kathryn Pursch Cornforth, associate director, Carlson Leadership and Public Service Center
Outstanding Achievement Award
- Ali Albrecht, transfer engagement manager, First Year Programs
- Carey Christie, alumni and communications specialist, Honors Program
Outstanding Student Employee Award
- Chungeun “Chloe” Lee, teaching assistant for the UW Academy, Robinson Center
- Bryan Nakata, digital media producer, Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Award for Excellence
Awarded to employees who have worked in UAA for at least five years, this award celebrates the employee’s leadership in creating formative student experiences and building the necessary infrastructure to support their vision. Recognizing the critical role advisers play in the undergraduate experience, Aley Mills Willis evolved the Honors advising program to be an essential piece of her students’ experience. Understanding the importance of experiential learning, Kathryn Pursch Cornforth actively works with peers across the campus and community to lay the foundation for students to engage in service learning.
Aley Mills Willis, the advising mastermind
“Aley is a natural and gifted adviser, always fully engaged with each student she works with, while simultaneously thinking about the bigger picture of academic services. She is thoroughly dedicated to students and works tirelessly and creatively to ensure that they have rich and challenging experiences, while also supporting them in that journey. When recent graduates of our program are asked ‘How did Honors help you in your time as an undergrad?’ the nurturing, individually tailored advising experiences is most-often cited.”
— UW Honors Staff
Achievements of note: Created the Honors advising program, consistently provides support for her staff to grow; founded the Honors Field Studies Program; played a key role in building the Honors admission process; integral in developing the Honors 100 first-year seminar and the 2010 Interdisciplinary Honors curriculum; instrumental in creating the peer mentoring program; and formalized the National Collegiate Honors Council’s Partners in the Parks program.
Kathryn Pursch Cornforth, the visionary facilitator
“Kathryn is an inspirational, thoughtful and patient lead for UAA and for faculty teaching around the presence of Tent City 3 on campus during winter quarter. She worked tirelessly with the Tent City Collective, Tent City residents and with faculty to ensure that our collaborations were substantive, ethical and appropriately engaged. I could not have successfully offered my own class, ‘Engaging Homelessness,’ without her wonderful partnership. We are so lucky to have Kathryn in the Carlson Center!”
— Dr. Vicky Lawson, director of Honors and professor of geography
Achievements of note: Played a critical role in fostering an impactful stay for Tent City 3, including building relationships with Tent City 3 residents, vetting learning opportunities with Tent City 3, including classes, conversations and meals; led the development of MLK week; heads the service learning teams, which impacts 3,000 students, 350 community partners and 100+ faculty; assisting with the development of a pilot study aboard program in Berlin, Germany.
See highlights from MLK Week, which Kathryn Pursch Cornforth plays a large role in organizing.
Outstanding Achievement Award
Recognizing the innovation, collaboration and tenacity it takes to initiate change, this award acknowledges the leaders behind some of UAA’s innovative programming. Ali Albrecht’s commitment to serving transfer students led her to create more robust experiences for them. Carey Christie’s vision for an Honors alumni network inspired her to build an active and engaged community of alumni.
Ali Albrecht, the transfer student advocate
“Ali has taken the lead on improving the transfer experience for more than 2,000 new transfer students every year. Even before she formally took on this role, Ali exhibited innovative thinking by hosting a Transfer Husky Kick-off event with remarks from President Cauce … Ali has always thought creatively about how we can broaden the UAA footprint to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity a transfer student brings to our campus.”
— The First Year Programs Team
Achievements of note: Collaborating cross campus to improve the transfer student experience, including: hosting a Transfer Husky Kick-off event, establishing the Transfer Ambassadors peer mentor program, a seminar for transfer students and strategic plan to stay engaged with these students year-round and actively mentors students.
Virtually attend Transfer Dawg Daze, which Ali initiated:
Carey Christie, the alumni network architect
“Carey has made the position her own, defining and crafting it to create a model of innovation, imprinting her creativity, her ‘can do’ attitude, and diverse communication skills to the task of alumni outreach and community building. Her special achievement of increasing alumni engagement in Honors has accomplished many layers of good for the Program and ripples across our work in Honors, as well as advances UAA’s mission to deepen and strengthen community.”
— UW Honors Staff
Achievements of note: Establishing the Honors Alumni Program from scratch; producing and coordinating the Global Challenges Event; creating the Honors Alumni Panel, now an integral part of the program; managing and steering the Advisory Board; Honors Hearths, which brings faculty and alumni into the residence halls for heartfelt conversations; and marketing the Honors Program.
Outstanding Student Employee Award
Student employees are an integral part of the UAA staff. This award recognizes the outstanding achievements of two student employees. Chloe Lee’s enthusiasm for her work as a TA is contagious and regularly inspires those around her to get involved with causes they feel passionate about. Bryan Nakata’s creativity has played an integral role in shaping UAA’s communications work.
Chungeun “Chloe” Lee, leading by example
“Many Robinson Center students have been inspired by Chloe’s initiative and leadership and have followed her into these groups to give back to their community in ways that Chloe has modeled. … Chloe’s contributions to the Robinson Center’s mission have been vast and, in every role she takes on, she demonstrates exceptional professional integrity, personal responsibility and care for others. We simply could not ask for a better teacher, leader and mentor for our community of students, and we feel so lucky that Chloe has given so much of her professional and personal energy to supporting others who wish to follow in her footsteps.”
— Curtis Hisayasu
, associate director of programs, UW Academy, Robinson Center
Achievements of note: Founder, “Huskies for Kids” registered student organization (RSO) which raises awareness of childhood poverty and illness; officer in “Hand2Hand,” which works with several women’s and youth shelters. As a T.A. performed better than most graduate students and set the bar for future T.A.s
Bryan Nakata, the up-and-coming filmmaker
“Bryan has great technical knowledge and ability, and he also has a strong degree of self-awareness, creativity, drive, narrative instinct, receptivity to others’ ideas, and empathy to tell stories really, really well. His technical ability supports his creativity in his video work. He knows the effect of a particular camera lens, or lens flare, or angle, or lighting. And he’s constantly striving to push himself to learn more and use the technical to support the story.”
— Kirsten Atik, communications director, Undergraduate Academic Affairs
Achievements of note: Consistently producing top quality films and photos, including the MLK video above. Here are some additional videos he’s produced:
Mary Gates Endowment 20th Anniversary
Making art out of rejection: Miha Sarani paints his heroes
One big Husky family
Students come from all across Washington state, the country and the world, but when they come here, they are all part of the same Husky family. Watch as they come together in one gigantic W. (Video)
Fast facts on helping students transition to the UW
Check out this fact sheet on Advising and Orientation, and learn about first-year students’ pathway into understanding UW values and the Husky Experience as well as the impact a thoughtful University transition has on student retention.
Video and photos from MLK Week 2016
In January 2016, the University broadened and deepened our recognition of the MLK holiday and expanded our recognition from a day of service to a week of service, leadership, learning, legacy-building and celebration. Check out a wrap-up video and view some photos from various events from the week.
Welcome to fall quarter!
Each year, new Huskies come together on the field at Husky Stadium for their entering class photo. Thousands of them —stretching from one 10-yard-line to the other — form one giant W for their class photo. As students prepare to participate in opportunities all across campus over the coming years, they can find meaning in the time when they stood together at the start of their Husky career. The next time they will stand together (though not in a W) will be at commencement.
Here’s a little peek into the giant W taking shape.
https://youtu.be/9qF6hfL_urM
Transfer students realize their dreams, thanks to Martin Family Foundation
For 20 years, the Martin Family Foundation has supported students transferring to the University of Washington from Washington state community colleges. Martin Scholars cite not just the financial help in supporting their dreams of a college education, but also the encouragement that came with the recognition.
Undergraduate researchers find the UW to be an awesome “summer camp”
Each summer, when campus is quieter and Mt. Rainier is out more often, undergraduates from the University of Washington and from universities across the country participate in the UW version of a wonderful childhood tradition: summer camp. The UW, however, is quite a bit techier than the thin-walled, mossy-roofed cabins of yore.
Here, the hum, buzz and whir of high tech lab equipment replaces the song of the mosquito; lab coats are worn instead of polar fleece; and student researchers’ “camp counselors” are faculty members whose interests push the boundaries of innovation and contribute to a world of good.
Summer Undergraduate Research Symposium
Hear undergraduate researchers discuss their drive to discover innovations that contribute to a world of good.
Symposium highlights work of more than 120 undergraduates who have participated in STEM research over the summer.
August 19, 2015, 9 a.m.–12 noon
Mary Gates Hall Commons
This summer, more than 120 undergraduates brought their innovation mindsets and drive to discover to faculty research projects across campus. The projects varied from understanding pain to better alleviate it, to photonics, genome sciences, engineering and more.
New programs bring new opportunities for undergraduates
Of particular note is a new program in which undergraduate researchers are better understanding and contributing to the alleviation of pain. Millions of people in the US alone suffer from debilitating chronic pain. In the new Innovations in Pain Research Summer Program, students work alongside doctors and researchers from UW Medicine to better understand pain and treatment mechanisms, develop new therapies and improve access to evidence-based pain care.
Rising senior Alta Steward worked with Dr. Kushang V. Patel from the Department of Anesthesiology conducting epidemiology research with an emphasis on chronic pain and cellular aging. “Many older people suffer from chronic pain, and chronic pain has been linked to early death,” explains Stewart. “By looking at the relationship between cellular age and pain, we hope to shed light on what factors lead to earlier death and what can be done to combat these.”
This project is the first research project Stewart, a mathematics and neurobiology double-major, has worked on. She “had no idea what to expect going into this experience and had never even thought of doing epidemiology research before. I realized within the first week that this was a really great fit for me and I am thrilled to be able to continue this research in the coming year.”
Tom Gebert, a rising senior in neurobiology, researched different aspects of pain in children. In one study, he and his fellow researchers “analyzed a national database to study pediatric pain patients and subsequent development of psychiatric disorders in adulthood.” In the project he’ll present at the August 19 symposium, the team studied trends in opiod prescriptions in children, adolescents and their family members over 15 years. Given the high potential for misusing opiod prescriptions, results from this study could guide future studies and clinical practices around opiod use.
Even though Gebert has participated in undergraduate research for two years, he says that this summer’s projects have been “an incredible experience to be able to peek further into the world of academic research, and it is encouraging to see that with enough passion and drive there are opportunities to pursue just about any intellectual curiosity.”
The Innovations in Pain Research project is funded by a gift from Scan Design to the Department of Anesthesiology, which, in turn, is collaborating with the Undergraduate Research Program.
Another new opportunity for undergraduates is a collaboration with the UW’s CoMotion. Students in the CoMotion Mary Gates Innovation Scholars program spent the summer interning with faculty-led initiatives to create real-world impact from University research. Students work alongside UW teams in bringing discoveries to the marketplace and extend their classroom-based work into the realms of innovation and entrepreneurship.
Undergraduate research opportunities abound in the summer
In addition to these research opportunities, students are making advances in faculty-led research in organic chemistry, materials science and engineering, physics, electrical engineering, chemical synthesis, and more. Undergraduates are finding research opportunities in such programs as Hooked on Photonics, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Exceptional Research Opportunities Program, and the Center for Selective C-H Functionalization as well as others across campus.
The Undergraduate Research Program supports students in these summer research programs through advising, by building a community of researchers, and facilitating the application process to connect students and faculty researchers.
Welcoming new undergrads to the UW
This summer, thousands of freshmen and transfer students — 8,000+ of them — will participate in summer Advising and Orientation. With this year’s record-breaking numbers of freshmen, advisers, faculty, First Year Programs’ staff, student orientation leaders and campus-wide partners are busier than ever helping our newest students transition to the UW so they are able to take advantage of the UW’s boundless opportunities for undergraduates.
Advising and Orientation at the UW is done within an academic framework, helping students put down roots so, come fall quarter, they are ready to grow.
Learn more through this Advising and Orientation overview (PDF): Summer Advising & Orientation Information
Fall 2015 Collegium Seminar course descriptions
Freshmen: Start your first quarter at the UW with a freshmen-only Collegium Seminar. Meet other people, get to know the professor, and explore interesting topics like super heroines in comics, the convergence of art and math, science in the courtroom, medical ethics, leadership, time travel, music of the Pacific Northwest and, yes, sex.