In the Honors Program, where interdisciplinarity and inquiry define the student experience, Professor Jon C. Herron exemplifies the kind of teaching that changes how students see the world — and themselves.
Category: Academic resources
Posts that relate to programs in the academic resources menu.
Progress report on the UW Dialogue Initiative
In this video, Megan Kennedy, director of the UW Resilience Lab and project lead for the UW Dialogue Initiative, provides some background and a progress report on the first year of the Initiative.
UW undergraduate receives prestigious Gates Cambridge scholarship
Tristan Jafari, pursuing his bachelor’s degree in biochemistry at the University of Washington, was selected for the prestigious Gates Cambridge Scholarship.
Jafari, a departmental Honors student set to graduate a year early this June, will receive a full-cost scholarship to pursue a master’s degree in philosophy in Population Health Sciences at the University of Cambridge, England.
The highly competitive scholarship recognizes past accomplishments and future potential. This year, 35 students from US-based institutions were selected to join the 2025 class of Gates Cambridge Scholars. In April 2025, 65 additional students from around the world will be named, forming a class of 100 Gates Cambridge Scholars from 36 institutions for the 25th anniversary of the scholarship.
“Being named a Gates Cambridge Scholar is an immense honor,” said Jafari. “It’s both inspiring and motivating to join a global community of scholars who are deeply committed to using their education to improve lives.”
Alongside this remarkable achievement, Jafari has earned the UW Class of 1962 Endowed Scholarship, the UW Chemistry Scholarship and the Mary Gates Leadership Scholarship twice. He was also honored with the Martin and Anne Jugum Scholarship in Labor Studies, each of which provided him with invaluable opportunities and enriched his undergraduate experience.
Jafari was born in Oklahoma City and raised in Mukilteo, Washington, by Iranian parents who left their homeland as teenagers. They resettled in Germany before immigrating to the United States. As dual citizens of the U.S. and Germany, Jafari’s family spoke English, German and Farsi. This multicultural upbringing allowed him to navigate a blend of cultures, shaping his perspective on identity and global health.
After witnessing a life-saving medical response, Jafari became an emergency medical technician (EMT) during his freshman year and has since worked in Snohomish County. At the UW, he has grown through a diverse set of experiences — researching cardiometabolic disease at the UW Diabetes Institute, leading campus blood drives with the American Red Cross, establishing a free CPR training program on campus and volunteering to improve patient health literacy.
Jafari is eager to immerse himself in the global academic community at Cambridge, where he will advance his proficiency in spatial epidemiology, biostatistics and public health frameworks to better understand how systemic health challenges, such as addiction, chronic disease and emergency response, can be addressed.
“I know that this experience will challenge my thinking, broaden my perspective and equip me with the tools to become a more impactful leader in medicine and public health,” said Jafari. He hopes to pursue an M.D. after his master’s degree, with long-term aspirations to integrate public health leadership and clinical medicine.
Jafari expresses deep gratitude to his mentors and professors, including Mr. Eric Timm, Dr. Charlie Barrows, Dr. Hannah Jordt, Dr. Daniel Roberts, Dr. Inma Velasco, Dr. Mauricio Dorfman, and Dr. Josh Thaler. He also thanks his friends and family for their unwavering encouragement.
About the Gates Cambridge Scholarship
Established in October 2000 by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates Cambridge Scholarships are awarded on a student’s intellectual ability, leadership capacity and desire to use their knowledge to contribute to society throughout the world by providing service to their communities and applying their talents and knowledge to improve the lives of others.
Learn about scholarship opportunities at the UW
The Gates Cambridge Scholarship application process is supported by the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards (OMSFA), a UAA program. OMSFA works with students, faculty and staff to identify and support undergraduate students and alumni in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for scholarships.
More than money: Scholarships, jobs, internships map to students’ interests
Funding opportunities abound across UAA with a broad range of funded opportunities — scholarships, internships and jobs — that connect to and support students’ interests.
Celebrating the 2023–24 Undergraduate Medalists
Each year, the University of Washington awards the President’s Medalist Award to its top undergraduates. For 2023–2024, Samuel Perkowski, Mia Grayson and Cher Zhang were chosen for their academic excellence, including high GPAs, rigorous coursework and Honors classes. All three biochemistry majors have pursued impactful research and embraced the Husky Experience through activities like lab work, music and studying abroad. They will be honored by President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Tricia Serio at a special reception, where they’ll receive their medals in front of family, friends and mentors.
From mentorship to MBA
Alumnus Izaiha Ellis, ’20, began his interdisciplinary journey at the University of Washington with the Honors Program course, “Leadership, Democracy and a More Thoughtful Public.” Each week, he read essays by global politicians and writers, exploring how individual actions shape community dynamics. The course challenged students to consider how their choices impact the support or neglect of others.
Bridging science and humanity
Daniel Chen’s journey into research began with a fascination for ancient cultures and extinct creatures. As a middle schooler, he was captivated by archaeology and paleontology, dreaming of working at excavation sites, unearthing ancient bones and tracing the histories of lost civilizations. Over time, that early curiosity shifted toward biology, particularly as computational modeling emerged as a powerful tool.
Bridging histories in the American South
What if learning about the American South meant building bridges to both the past and the future? Instead of merely skimming the surface of history, what if you could dive deep, discovering the connections between place, community and the resilience born from oppression? What if history became personal, revealing the stories of beloved communities shaped by struggle?
This past summer, the University of Washington Honors Program, in partnership with the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center, offered an immersive “study away” experience that delivered on this vision of learning.
Led by community partner Sankofa Impact, students embarked on a four-week bus journey across 10 states in the South. Through “Honors American South: Foundations of Black Culture, Social Movements and Collective Liberation,” they explored the legacies of enslavement, racial terror, civil rights, mass incarceration and contemporary abolition activism — making history a shared, living narrative.
Upon returning, Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor, who co-taught the course, reunited with two of the students, CELE program alum LeVera Brown, ’24 (communications major and diversity minor), and Honors Program student Zoe Hesselroth, ’25 (nursing major), to reflect on the moments that shaped their journey and the lasting impact it had on their understanding of history and identity.
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Ed Taylor: LeVera, Zoe, it’s great to see you both! The last time we met was in Houston after our trip to Galveston [in Texas]. What inspired you to join this journey to study liberation and race in America?
LeVera: This trip was personal for me. As a Black American, it’s deeply connected to my history. With much of my family still in the South, I felt compelled to learn about their realities — stories they may not have shared. Experiencing our history in an immersive way was important. Standing in those places, walking the same paths and touching the things they touched made it all the more significant for me. I knew I had to be there to understand my roots and the efforts of those who came before me. As it was my senior year, I was determined to explore what this history means for my future.
Zoe: Nursing influenced my decision to join this trip. I’m passionate about public health nursing and believe it’s crucial to understand the communities we serve and the historical context of racism. I wanted to learn more about the cultural aspects of these communities and build trust with my future patients. Understanding their experiences, including those of modern foot soldiers and their struggles, was important to me. Plus, this was my first trip to the South, which pushed me outside my comfort zone.
Ed: Community engagement matters to you also. Why was that a compelling part of this course?
LeVera: Community engagement is very important to me. I’ve done a lot of work at the Othello-UW Commons in South Seattle, serving local residents, Huskies, staff and community partners. We create a space for collaboration and support. My upbringing has centered on community, activism and social justice, making engagement a core part of my life. On this trip, I wanted to explore the roots of community engagement within the Black American community — understanding how it began and its foundational methods. That was crucial for me.
Interdisciplinary learning
Ed: Can you share how this trip aligns with the values of the Honors Program?
Zoe: First, it’s interdisciplinary, connecting different aspects of history and various spheres of education. We definitely saw that on our trip—exploring environmental justice, economic justice and how these issues relate across history and in the modern day.
The Honors Program is about empowering you to take action and be part of the change you want to see. During the application process, we were asked about social issues we wanted to work on and how our experiences informed that. A theme that kept emerging on our trip was the importance of not leaving behind what we learned but actually applying it to influence our future actions. That sense of application and connection to our backgrounds felt very much in line with the Honors Program.
Community legacies
Ed: Describe a place that tells a significant story. What was your experience and connection to it?
Zoe: Burnell’s grocery store in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans! After Hurricane Katrina, Burnell, a veteran, used his life savings to fill the neighborhood’s need for a supermarket. [The impacts of the hurricane] had forced residents to travel two hours for essentials. His store offers fresh produce, canned goods and a small restaurant, while also providing job opportunities for locals.
Walking in, you can feel the love — murals, positive messages and music create a true community hub. What started as a grocery store has evolved into something much greater. You can really feel that. Burnell’s uplifting spirit inspires others to pursue their dreams, even if they don’t know how to start. He believes in facing fears, he reminded us that “you can’t let fear control you, you must keep moving forward.”
LeVera: I loved the moment we had in Galveston at the Nia Cultural Center. Our tour guide showed us a brick wall covered with fingerprints left by enslaved people. It had been concealed in cement for years; no one even knew it was there. Then one day the cement fell off. Our tour guide mentioned this as a metaphor: the truth will always be revealed, no matter how many ways you try to cover it up.
Zoe: That felt surreal. We stepped outside after learning that enslaved people built those bricks and left their fingerprints behind. Yet, across the street, a gift shop sells T-shirts in a former slave market. This contrast highlighted how history is often overlooked, how the suffering and contributions of those who built this place aren’t being acknowledged. I had many of these “whoa” moments throughout the trip.
Ed: While there’s a lot of tourism, your guide wanted to take you deeper, sharing the history behind the place. It was clear that you were there to learn, making a distinction between just passing through as a tourist and positioning yourselves as truly present, wanting to understand and feel the history. It was powerful to witness how you all engaged with that moment.
Trust is the currency
Ed: When I think about a collection of strangers traveling together on a bus for a month through the South, it’s easy to imagine potential conflicts. Yet, so much went right. What do you think kept your group united? Was there something that helped you share those experiences and stay connected?
Zoe: Care and respect were crucial for us. We were discussing tough subjects, and it hit harder for those with personal connections to the history. Checking in on each other and genuinely caring about everyone’s well-being made a big difference. Trusting each other’s authenticity and intentions helped create a supportive environment.
It was also important to find moments of joy amidst the heaviness. Those times when we would break out in laughter on the bus really helped strengthen our bond. They were nice moments that kept us connected.
LeVera: We definitely had a lot of those moments of joy! As we were going through heavy topics we were always there for each other. As you mentioned, we did regular check-ins, asking questions like, “Hey, how are you feeling?” Those moments really went a long way for us.
Ed: Two words at the heart of this course: collective liberation. What does this concept mean to you now?
LeVera: Having experienced and learned everything we have, my view of collective liberation has expanded significantly. I believe that collective liberation starts within yourself, and I now understand that everyone has something to contribute to it. That collective liberation can take many forms, but you need to liberate yourself in order to support the liberation of others. It’s challenging to define freedom if you don’t even know what it feels like for you.
Zoe: When I think about collective liberation, the concept of people power stands out. Establishing trust in the community is crucial. Collective liberation happens on multiple levels — economic, environmental and more. It’s a process that unfolds over time. We need to recognize the foot soldiers of the past and learn from them while looking at those actively contributing today. We can play a part in it. I also think about Afrofuturism, envisioning a future and considering where we can go from here.
Ed: Where do we go from here? When you travel and hear stories of history, trauma and challenges, it’s easy to get weighed down by that heaviness. Yet, you both have emerged with a sense of joy. What gives you hope in light of the history you’ve encountered?
LeVera: What gives me hope is the people we met and their stories. It’s striking to realize that civil rights workers were often teenagers, people in their early 20s, fighting for change and being boundless. Their passion and achievements fill me with hope. If they could accomplish so much despite their challenges, I have a responsibility to carry that baton forward. They never gave up, which is why I’m where I am today.
During our trip, many people emphasized that we can’t let progress slide backward. They said things like, “We’ve worked too hard. It’s your turn now; you need to fight because things are serious.” This consistent message made me realize the importance of staying engaged. They would say, “You can do this. You can do that. You’re a creator.” Their belief in us gives me a lot of hope, too.
The Robinson Center Husky Experience: A parent’s perspective
Nearly 50 years ago, UW professors Halbert and Nancy Robinson envisioned a school to serve academically talented students with accelerated needs. Today, the Robinson Center stands as a refuge, a long-awaited home for scholars eager to embark on journeys of intellectual and self-discovery. The Center’s focus, experience and infrastructure in nurturing gifted young scholars within the environment of a leading public university is a key factor in parents’ and their students’ decisions to drop out of high school and enroll in the program.
15 Seconds at a Time: Honors Program
In this video, Honors Program Director Stephanie Smallwood takes on the challenge of explaining the Honors Program in less than 15 seconds at a time. 15 Seconds at a Time is a series where we find out if various Undergraduate Academic Affairs departments can explain their work in only 15 Seconds at a Time.