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Undergraduate Academic Affairs

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Message from Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor, Fall 2011

Alumni e-News
Table of Contents

Dean Ed Taylor
As vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs at the University of Washington Seattle, Dr. Edward Taylor oversees educational opportunities that deepen and enrich the undergraduate experience including First Year Programs, educational assessment, experiential learning, academic advising and the University Honors Program.

Dear UAA Alumni and Friends

With the growth in undergraduate tuition and the complexity of the moment that we live in, this is a remarkable and noteworthy time to be dedicated to the education and preparation of undergraduate students for the 21st century. I was reminded of this at Freshman Convocation, our ceremonial welcoming of freshmen to the University of Washington. Hec Ed was full of new Huskies and their families—it was an inspiring moment kicking off a new stage in the lives of these students, beginning the celebration of the UW’s 150th anniversary, and introducing our new president, Michael K. Young, to the newest members of our community. Following the ceremony, I had the opportunity to shake hands with students from all over the globe. Despite—and perhaps because of—the challenges our community faces, it was an exuberant, exciting, and invigorating start to the quarter.

UAA Alumni: What are you doing now? How have your undergraduate experiences impacted your current work? Tell us about it by emailing UAAalum@uw.edu and we’ll include it in the Alumnotes section of this e-newsletter.

This quarter, I am teaching a Freshman Interest Group class with Honors Program Director Jim Clauss in which we examine transformation through varied texts including Virgil’s Aeneid, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, and a beautiful book of poems called The Bled by Frances McCue. Each week, we sit down with 20 of our freshmen and get an up close look at why we speak of our students as being so talented and diverse. I was compelled by a student from Rainier Beach connecting Aeneas’s personal transformation to her own thoughts about her personhood as she transitions into the UW. Listening to a young man from Bellevue and a young woman from Taiwan talk about these texts and what it means to understand transformation and heroism in both a classic and contemporary sense gave me an up close look at what it means to build an intellectual and social community around issues that matter in the world. The closer I look, the more profound I find our students to be.

As I reflect on these and other UW undergraduates and the journeys they are embarking upon—some of quite epic proportions—I am reminded of William Cronon’s essay, “Only Connect,” in which he discusses the purpose of a liberal arts education as that of “nurtur[ing] the growth of human talent in the service of human freedom.” He concludes that “In the act of making us free, [education] also binds us to the communities that gave us our freedom in the first place; it makes us responsible to those communities in ways that limit our freedom. In the end, it turns out that liberty is not about thinking or saying or doing whatever we want. It is about exercising our freedom in such a way as to make a difference in the world and make a difference for more than just ourselves.”

This freedom relates to the kind of commitment the UW makes to the public: that we will educate young people well; that we will enact and engage the values of integrity, truth, and discovery. At some level, these values are really about the formation of relationships. They are lived out in classrooms, in the research process, in mentorship and advising, and through service to the community.

And we see the embodiment of this work in our alumni, which you’ll learn about in this issue of our e-newsletter. Best-selling novelist David Guterson is deeply involved in his community. Several alumni are teachers, one of our most noble professions, and share their insights from a variety of classrooms. Hear 2007 CNN Hero and UW alumnus Peter Kithene talk about how the relationships he formed here inspired him to continue the work of bringing healthcare to his home village in Kenya. At the end of the day, all these endeavors are ultimately about the shaping of human lives in service to improving the world that we live in.

So while this is a challenging moment for our University and community, and while we may at times feel burdened by budget cuts and a sense of scarcity, the well of student and alumni talent never runs dry and it is from there that we draw inspiration.

Sincerely,
Ed Taylor's Signature
Ed Taylor
Vice Provost and Dean

Welcome from the Dean August 2011

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

There are many ways of being a UW student. A central aim of Undergraduate Academic Affairs is to orient University of Washington undergraduates, to engage them deeply in the University, to create a rich and multi-layered learning environment and to connect students to campus, our community, and our world. The ways in which we do that highlight themes of leadership, research, teaching, and community—fundamental elements to the UW undergraduate academic experience.

Undergraduates learning the qualities of civic leadership shared their work and service to our local and global communities at the 19th Annual Spring Celebration of Service and Leadership. Students from across campus presented their leadership projects ranging from helping kids learn to read to furthering environmental sustainability to creating a micro-lending program in Ghana and building roads in Bolivia.

At the 13th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, students shared their faculty-mentored projects and how being involved in research that advances our knowledge, illuminates our understanding of our world, and serves the common good deepened their classroom experiences.

A meaningful learning environment begins in the classroom with inspired teaching. Each year, we charge a committee to undertake the herculean task of selecting just a few distinguished teachers from the many excellent educators here. This year we brought past and present Distinguished Teaching Awardees together for our second Distinguished Teaching Award Showcase.

Students are motivated to take intellectual risks and extend themselves academically when they identify with a community. UAA’s Dream Project, Honors Program, and Robinson Center celebrated their community members’ entrance to the University and graduation from the University and honored the tradition of leaving the University a different person than they were when entering it. They leave more confident, more knowledgeable, ready to make a difference be it through Teach for America, inspiring their own children to excel, going on to medical school, or becoming an engineer.

Many of these same students joined thousands others in Husky Stadium at Commencement. Their friends, families, and loved ones smiling and waving from the stands, celebrating their accomplishments and cheering on their future success.

The ebb and flow of the University is perhaps most present at this time of year. While the spring is clearly a hub of activity, the summer is more subtly active. As the class of 2010 left the stadium, took their pictures, and moved on to family brunches or maybe open houses, we are beginning to welcome the newest members of our Husky family with summer orientation.

Over the summer, more than 5,000 freshmen and 2,000 transfer students will come to the UW from Seattle, Yakima, Oakland, CA, Beaverton, OR, and as far away as China. They will renew the Washington way of educating students through leadership, research, teaching, and community so they graduate with a sense of purpose, an understanding of the contributions they are poised to make, and their own ideas of what it means to be a global citizen in the 21st century.

Beginning with Freshman Convocation, I look forward to getting to know as many of these students as possible. When it is their time to graduate, I’ll be at Commencement, celebrating their accomplishments and cheering on their future success.

Sincerely,
Ed Taylor
Vice Provost & Dean

Computer models to fly you to the moon*

Each year, thousands of UW undergraduates participate in research with faculty. As these undergraduate researchers graduate, they bring the critical thinking and problem solving skills they learned to graduate school or right into the workforce. For Undergraduate Academic Affairs and aeronautics and astronautics alum Peter Norgaard, ’04, research was an integral component of his undergraduate years.

Undergraduate service makes a difference for the community and students

Undergraduate participation in service learning has increased dramatically as students are eager to apply what they’re learning in class to an outside context and because they are driven to give back to the community. Learn how service and leadership made a difference for two UAA alumnae and meet two students who shared their experiences at this year’s Spring Celebration.

Robinson Center alumni and friends connect over chocolate

Last February, the Robinson Center for Young Scholars hosted an open house for Robinson Center students, parents, alumni, and parents of alumni. Conversation was bright, friendships were formed and renewed, and chocolate flowed freely from the chocolate fountain. Enjoy a few alumni, parent, and student reminiscences on their favorite memories of the Robinson Center.