University of Washington senior Parker Ritzmann, has been selected as a Schwarzman Scholar, one of the world’s most competitive graduate and fellowship programs. Schwarzman Scholars will pursue a one-year, fully-funded master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Tag: undergraduate scholarships
UW sophomore awarded selective Udall Scholarship for commitment to environment and community
University of Washington undergrad Lorenzo Roel Flores McCleese, ‘27, was recently named a Udall Scholar. Lorenzo is pursuing bachelor’s degrees in environmental science and terrestrial resource management as well as informatics, with a focus on data science. He is also minoring in diversity.
UW undergraduate with interdisciplinary AI focus earns fellowship of up to $90,000 for graduate study
University of Washington Honors student Andre Ye, pursuing bachelors’ degrees in philosophy and computer science with minors in math and history, has been selected for the esteemed Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans is a merit-based fellowship supporting immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education in the U.S. This year, 30 Fellows were selected out of more than 2,600 applicants for their past achievements and future promise to make significant contributions to American society. Fellows will receive up to $90,000 to fund graduate studies for two years.
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.
Innovating leadership at the Spring CELEbration
The 2024 Spring CELEbration highlighted the intersection of service and leadership at the University of Washington. Students involved in the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center and Mary Gates Endowment Leadership Scholars showcased their service, leadership and activist work from the academic year. The HUB, North Ballroom and Conference Rooms were filled with energy on May 24, the date of the culminating student event. Family, friends, mentors and community partners interacted with students during the CELEbration, which included lightning talk rounds, table talk presentations, poster sessions and a video showcase.
Honors Program undergrad Nathan Loutsis, ‘24, majoring in political science: international security with minors in public policy and leadership, first connected with the CELE Center as a UW Presidential Scholar. “Director Fran Lo not only collaborated with me to develop an individual leadership plan but also connected me with leadership opportunities that arose during my academic journey,” Loutsis explained.
Loutsis’ commitment to public service began at age 14 through a youth volunteer program with King County. In high school, a personal incident sparked his passion for creating safe school walking routes. As a result, Loutsis began serving as a planning commissioner for Kenmore at 16. “I brought a unique perspective to the table, representing a younger and often overlooked demographic,” Loutsis said.
With his background in local service and community governance, Loutsis was an ideal candidate for the NextGen Civic Leader Corps, a UW tri-campus, interdisciplinary program that widens the pathways to public service. Loutsis is currently a city council member for Kenmore, a position he won in last year’s election, “Running for office was challenging, but I won and continue to fall in love with public service and civic engagement every day.” Loutsis added, “I enjoy empowering young people to participate.”
At the event, Loutsis presented his Husky Leadership Certificate in a table talk format, sharing his leadership development project. Initially, Loutsis viewed leadership as a hierarchical construct. Over time, he saw it as an interpersonal and social influence. “Leadership is unique to each person. How we utilize our strengths and character to guide others is significant,” said Loutsis.
As he prepares to begin his master’s in public administration at the Evans School this fall, Loutsis credits the CELE Center as a pivotal part of his Husky experience. “This community has supported me in unimaginable ways, providing comprehensive leadership development,” he says. Loutsis believes the CELE Center equipped him with leadership skills and helped him discover his potential. “I can continue this work, developing the skills, theories and competencies to serve my community more effectively.”
Foundations for success
Ellis Fellow and Husky 100 awardee, Bryan Ortega, ’24, presented his leadership reflection during one of the evening’s lightning rounds. A first-generation Latino student majoring in molecular, cellular and developmental biology, Ortega participated in the CELE Center’s Undergraduate Community Based Internships (UCBI) program. He attributed his strong leadership foundations and values to his family, stating, “My parents and grandparents are my main inspiration; they have been the foundation for what I have accomplished so far,” he said.
Ortega began his years of community service volunteering at a local hospital in Independence, Oregon, during high school. After moving to Seattle as a first-year student, he dedicated himself to youth shelter advocacy and spent two years working with young adults experiencing homelessness. Through UCBI, Ortega partnered with El Centro De La Raza, offering financial literacy support to empower people of all races. Currently, Ortega is an associate teacher at Bright Horizons, an early childhood education center, where he works with children ranging from infants to six years old.
Ortega emphasized that leadership embodies a profound commitment to growth and continuous learning. He views the role of a leader as a guide and a source of support, with a firm grasp of humility. “If you’re a leader who can’t admit that you’re making a mistake, are you really leading?” he questioned.
Ortega highlighted the importance of communication as a leader, not just for expressing his ideas but also for engaging in meaningful conversations. “There’s so much more that I’m excited to continue learning, and UW and the Ellis Fellowship have been integral in helping me develop my core values,” he reflected.
As Ortega prepares to pursue medical school, he looks at his CELE Center experience with gratitude. “I couldn’t be more fortunate for the opportunity and the connections I made. I learned to trust in myself and my abilities, and to see myself as a scientist,” he shared.
A way to give back
Su Cho, ’24, is a neuroscience major who demonstrated her leadership and service through her involvement with the Dream Project as a College and Career Readiness Assistant (CCRA). Presenting via the poster format of the event, Cho expressed her connection to the project’s mission, stating, “I was drawn to this work because I am also a first-generation student whose parents didn’t know about college and the systems here.” Cho found a passion in providing resources and guidance to first-gen students, immigrants and those from low-income families.
Cho shared how her sensitivity and understanding of the unique challenges faced by these students made her a strong leader in the Dream Project. Her personal experiences allowed her to be more respectful and sensitive when dealing with students’ family situations, financial status and other personal matters. “Having gone through a similar experience allowed me to understand their perspective,” Cho said. “I was able to support them respectfully, promoting their empowerment and self-respect. I hope this equips them with more opportunities and paves the way for future success wherever they go,” Cho shared.
Cho cited her service with the Dream Project as not just beneficial to the students she assisted, but also to her personal and academic growth. She viewed her role mentoring high school students as they navigated through barriers as a way of “passing down all the resources and giving back what I’ve received.” Cho hopes to apply these experiences in her future healthcare career, using her expanded understanding of diverse individuals and their circumstances to understand and serve all of her patients.
Photos from the 2024 Spring CELEbration
These photos are a sampling of students’ projects and presentations. Photos by Jayden Becles and Nancy Huizar.
About the Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center
The Community Engagement and Leadership Education (CELE) Center provides students with opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed to contribute to thriving communities; building authentic community and campus partnerships drive the work. CELE Center programs are centered around the areas of community-engaged learning, democratic engagement, leadership education, preK-12 student success and place-based initiatives.
About Mary Gates Leadership Scholarships
Mary Gates Leadership Scholarships encourage undergraduate students to develop their leadership abilities through practical experience, personal reflection and in community with mentors and peers.
UW senior Abby Burtner selected to be 1 of 16 Churchill Scholars
Abby Burtner, ‘24, has been awarded the prestigious Churchill Scholarship in recognition of her outstanding achievements in the field of biochemistry. As a Churchill Scholar, Burtner’s next step is to complete a fully-funded master’s degree in pathology at Cambridge University.
The Churchill Foundation selected 16 exceptional students as Churchill Scholars from a pool of 121 candidates this academic year. This year’s competition highlights the dedication, talent and exceptional accomplishments of the scholars, setting the stage for an even brighter future in the STEM fields and scientific exploration.
Burtner came to the UW from her hometown of Olympia, WA, and will be graduating in spring 2024 with a B.S in biochemistry with Interdisciplinary and Departmental Honors, along with minors in data science and chemistry. She got her start in research in Professor Sharlene Santana’s lab in the Department of Biology her freshman year and fell in love with the power of evolution to fine-tune and function on a macroevolutionary scale. By the end of her sophomore year, Burtner realized that a research career was the right fit for her through her work on computational biology projects supervised by Dr. Chris Law and Dr. Kelly Diamond.
As Burtner advanced in her college coursework, she became increasingly drawn to the microscopic level of life, leading her to join Professor Neil King’s group at the Institute for Protein Design in the Department of Biochemistry. There, she works on a project designing de novo proteins to bind toll-like receptors, key receptors that activate the innate immune system, for groundbreaking applications in vaccine development.
“The Churchill scholarship,” says Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, “is a prestigious opportunity for Abby to continue expanding her biochemistry skills. This award reflects her capacity to draw from her research and the mentorship she’s experienced, to fuel her work toward a greater understanding of our world in critical ways. The UW’s research community and campus-at-large are proud of Abby and encourage her as she continues to live out UW’s mission at Cambridge.”
Burtner is a past recipient of the DAAD Rise internship, Goldwater Scholarship, Washington Research Foundation Fellowship, Mary Gates Research Scholarship, and has been an undergraduate research leader at the Office of Undergraduate Research. Burtner intends to chart a career pathway investigating immunological systems through a biophysical lens as a principal investigator at an academic or industrial research lab.
“Pursuing a master’s at the University of Cambridge,” says Burtner, “will help me achieve my goal of obtaining a Ph.D. in biophysics. By learning foundational immunological techniques and techniques at Cambridge, along with the experimental and computational biophysical approaches I’ve learned here at UW, I will be working toward solving medical issues with broad impacts such as vaccination and cancer immunotherapies.” As she prepares for life in the UK, Burtner is excited about learning biomedical issues of global importance in an international context.
“I feel incredibly honored to receive the Churchill Scholarship”, says Burtner. “I could not have made it to this point without the stellar mentorship and support from the King Lab and Santana Lab at UW, particularly from my mentors Chloe Adams, Dr. Chris Law, Dr. Kelly Diamond, Robin Heiringhoff, and PIs Dr. Neil King, Dr. Sharlene Santana, Dr. Murat Maga, and Dr. Dietmar Manstein from the various research labs I have had the pleasure to work in. I would also like to thank my excellent honors chemistry and biochemistry professors, particularly Dr. Andrea Wills, for inspiring me to love this field and see a future for myself here, and the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards, particularly Robin Chang, for her excellent guidance and advice. Finally, I am so grateful for my family and friends, particularly those from the honors chemistry/biochemistry community here at UW — it is truly a wonderful place to be learning how to be a scientist.”
Outside of the lab, Abby is an officer in the student club Biology Students for Equity. She can often be found embracing the beauty of Washington state, be it hiking and skiing in the majestic mountains, or running across the city with the Husky Running Club, of which she was president her junior year.
The Churchill Scholarship application process is supported by the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards (OMSFA), a UAA program. OMSFA works with faculty, staff and students to identify and support promising students in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for this and other prestigious awards.
The UW campus application process for students interested in the Churchill Scholarship (and other scholarships supporting studies in the UK) will open in spring 2024 for 2025-2026 awards.
How research changed Melissa’s life
Melissa Krook always knew she wanted a career helping people. That was the easy part. Figuring out how was the challenge. Early on, Melissa had friends of all ages. Her grandmother, a nurse, operated a nursing home within her home in Federal Way, Washington. There, Melissa learned that friends come at all ages…
A passion for East Asian diplomacy
Influenced by his South Korean background and international experience, senior Benjamin Lee hopes that his research or future career in diplomacy may one day contribute to peace in the region.
Robinson Center student Varsha Govindaraju selected for prestigious Luce Scholarship
Varsha Govindaraju—social justice activist and future public interest lawyer—is one of only 18 students nationwide to be named a 2015-16 Luce Scholar. At 18 years old, she is also this year’s youngest Luce Scholar.
Navigating the scholarship process
The world of scholarships can be a daunting one. The Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards (OMSFA) helps undergraduates foster the skills and vision that are necessary to attain scholarships fit for their goals. Here, Mona Pitre-Collins, director of OMSFA, Robin Chang, assistant director of OMSFA and Sara Stubbs, global opportunities adviser, answer some common questions regarding the scholarship process.
Q: If a student is interested in applying for scholarships, what’s their first step? What should they be doing to make themselves competitive applicants?
Sara Stubbs (SS): When I meet with students, a distinction I often start with is high school versus college level scholarships. In high school, students would write an essay and get some cash. At this level, scholarships are often designed to pursue a particular endeavor, such as study abroad or research. The first step is really for students to develop their interests by using their resources, academic or otherwise. At that point it becomes a bit easier in a meeting with one of us to determine the kinds of opportunities that will help them support their endeavors. A student who comes in and says they just want some cash is very limited in the sense of scholarship searches.
Mona Pitre-Collins (MPC): Students should become engaged and they should use their academic work to develop a stronger understanding about the kinds of things they really want to do and the bits and pieces that will help them flesh that out and help them become stronger candidates, focused, more directed in relation to the goals they’re in the process of articulating. Sometimes the bits and pieces are developed in a nice plan, most other times they’re… not [laughs].
Robin Chang (RC): In order to widen the universe of scholarships you’re considering, you have to think beyond what will just put money in your pocket for school and see scholarships as facilitating gaining the experiences you need while in school to get a job, or go to graduate school or whatever comes later on after school.
Q: What are some benefits of applying for a scholarship, even if you are not selected to receive an award?
SS: The process really encourages students to think about and articulate their particular goals. When we start talking about what a student wants to get out of a particular scholarship opportunity, they end up figuring out even more goals for the future. Not only does fleshing out their plans make their application stronger, they’re also fleshing out their plans for what they want to do next. Without having been pushed to write that essay, they probably wouldn’t have thought that far.
MPC: Students have to develop a comprehensive way of talking about why they want to do this next endeavor, and applying for scholarships really helps with that.
RC: It also forces you to talk to and get to know your faculty members. You get a lot of relationship building going on.
Q: What is the number one thing that students overlook when they start applying for scholarships?
RC: The application component that applicants don’t spend enough time on is the resume. We see a lot of lists of activities completed, without any details or descriptions of what those activities were or what the student’s role was. I think a lot of people shortchange themselves on their resume because they think they don’t have a lot of stuff to put on there, but in reality they have more than they think.
MPC: Letters: how to approach someone to ask for a letter and materials they need to give a letter writer. A lot of students ask a faculty member or staff member to write a letter, but all they give them is the recommendation form. Even in high school, you have individuals that may not remember you that well. They can look in their gradebook, but that doesn’t say a lot about an individual.
SS: Exactly. A letter writer may know the student and know their work, but they may not know about the RSOs they’re involved in, any jobs they have, or any other circumstances in the student’s life. Students need to inform their letter writers.
Q: What are some common misconceptions students have when they come in to meet with one of you?
RC: It really does takes more than just having a good GPA. Some students come in with the thinking of “My high school GPA is a 3.96, why aren’t you giving me money?”
SS: I meet with a lot of students who don’t think they are candidates for any scholarships. When I meet with them initially they say they aren’t doing anything interesting, but when I talk to them it actually really is interesting that could fit with a particular scholarship.
MPC: A lack of scholarship availability. There are actually scholarships out there that are not as well populated; there aren’t thousands of people applying to them.
RC: Thinking that you have to wait to apply for scholarships when you need the money or when you’ve been accepted into a study abroad program. If you want to do something junior year you should be thinking sophomore year what your options are in terms of scholarships.
Q: What can students expect when they meet with you?
RC: We basically help them get started. We chat with them about what they were previously involved in, what they are involved in, what they hope to be involved in, and what tools are available to them.
SS: We help students brainstorm.
MPC: We’re also a door that opens students to other resources that might be available, such as scholarships in their own department or just good programs that help them become more competitive applicants for more scholarships.
The Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships, and Awards is one of many programs within Undergraduate Academic Affairs. OMFSA is located in Mary Gates Hall 171. To schedule an appointment regarding the scholarship process, contact OMSFA at 206-543-4282.
—Jasmine Kim is a sophomore in the University at Washington Honors Program majoring in cellular, molecular, and developmental biology with a minor in near eastern studies.