In this video, Undergraduate Research Program Director Sophie Pierszalowski takes on the challenge of explaining the Undergraduate Research Program in less than 15 seconds at a time. 鈥�15 Seconds at a Time鈥� is a series in which various Undergraduate Academic Affairs programs explain their work in bite-sized bursts.
Category: Features
Typically longer in length and relevancy than content in the news category. Features content is more likely to be republished over time.
Creating your 91爆料 academic adventure
Welcome to the 91爆料! This story is your own choose-your-own-adventure story, and begins right here with you. You are a first-year student in your first quarter. As you read, you will face challenges that ask you to decide which way to go. What will your pathway be? As you jump from storyline to storyline, you will learn about the resources available to you through UAA’s . Just as in life, you can鈥檛 go backward in this story, but you will get opportunities to redirect along the way. Have fun, and see you at the finish line: commencement!
Editor鈥檚 note: This story is not meant to be read straight through. Read a section, make your choice and see what part of your academic adventure unfolds next.
1
It鈥檚 your first quarter at the 91爆料! You feel very motivated and excited by the possibilities of a big university and living on your own for the first time.
As you prepare for classes, you reflect on how you want to make a difference in people鈥檚 lives and help others. You aren鈥檛 entirely sure what this may look like, but you are leaning pretty heavily toward a major in a STEM field. You talk it out with your family and they support this idea, saying, 鈥淣ot only would you be able to help others, but you will have many post-graduate opportunities in a medical field.鈥�
You signed up for a series of introductory classes at summer Advising & Orientation, including a chemistry class. In the first week of class, you overhear a student saying, 鈥淚 heard this is a weed-out class,鈥� but you feel pretty confident in your academic ability based on your grades in high school.
Continue to #2
2
The quarter is underway, and after just a few weeks you find yourself overwhelmed with the workload in your chemistry class. Looking around you say, 鈥淲hy does everyone else seem to be managing this better than me?鈥� Your new friends are going to parties and get-togethers while you are stuck at your desk for hours trying to understand the textbook. You realize you never really learned how to study in high school, and have no idea if you are doing it effectively.
You decide you need to either increase your study hours and commit to study nights at Odegaard Library or talk to your TA about your challenges.
#3 Decide to do more solo studying at Odegaard
#4 Decide to check in with a TA
3
Decide to solo study at Odegaard
Having dedicated more time to studying at night in Odegaard library, you begin to get caught up on all your readings before each class. Although the evenings there come with fewer distractions, the late nights start to wear on you, leaving you feeling isolated and sleep-deprived. You make plans with new friends only to cancel, telling them, 鈥淚 can’t hang out because I need to study. I鈥檓 so anxious about answering questions in class correctly.鈥�
Your focus has improved as you move through the quarter. You review your lecture notes, the readings from the textbook, and do all the practice exercises. Since you are studying alone, though, you question if you are answering the questions correctly. The back of the textbook has some of the answers but not the ones you are most stuck on.
As midterms approach, you find yourself falling behind again. The late study nights leave you sleeping through your alarm clock and running late to classes. You are exhausted and bail on your quiz section to take a nap. At this point in the quarter you find yourself asking, 鈥淒o I need to go talk to my chemistry TA, or should I just keep doing what I鈥檓 doing and hope for the best?鈥�
#4 Decide to go check in with a TA
#5 Head to the midterm
4
Decide to check in with a TA
You schedule a meeting with your TA and share how much time you are studying. The TA reassures you that it鈥檚 enough time and gives you a piece of advice, “It is important to find study strategies that work best for you to understand the material.” You know the TA cares about your success and talking with them was helpful, but when you leave you realize you aren鈥檛 exactly sure how to find the strategies that work best for you, especially when you never had this type of workload in high school. You feel a little lost and stuck, so you head to the library for a few more late nights of midterm prep.
#5 Time to head to the midterm
5
It’s time for the midterm
The first midterm of the quarter is here, and with all the extra nights you spent studying, you feel like it went pretty well! The professor mentioned it would be graded on a curve, so you think you will get at least a B. When the test scores come back you find out you did not even pass! Looking at your score you think, 鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know how this could happen! I studied so much, and missed out on all the fall events. I鈥檓 nervous about asking for help, but with this score, it鈥檚 clear I am going to need it.鈥�
You remember seeing a post for and think they might be able to help you with your chem homework. You also remember an flyer in the HUB and think they might be able to help with study skills and time management. You feel anxious about either option but eventually decide to reach out.
#6 Go to CLUE tutoring
#7 Go to the academic success coach
6
Decide to go to CLUE tutoring
You have been feeling a little intimidated connecting with others, and your nervousness has kept you from going to CLUE tutoring yet. You realize you really do need the help as you say, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 the worst thing that could happen?鈥� while eying the time on your phone. It鈥檚 7 p.m., so the CLUE tutoring drop-in sessions just started. You grab your chemistry homework and head over. You sit in the chemistry tutoring section and hear other students talk about tips they have used to better understand concepts. It鈥檚 reaffirming to hear that others struggle with the same material, and you feel like you鈥檝e warmed up to working with other students. The CLUE tutor reviews additional problems with you, helping you identify what step you were missing. You write down the steps to solve the problems, and are so happy to have that for later reference!
You feel like you have gotten help with some of the concepts you were struggling with in class, so now you need to choose if you want to keep studying these concepts for finals, or meet with an academic success coach and dive deeper into your study skills.
#10 Apply what you learned at CLUE and head to finals week
#8 Stopover with an academic success coach before finals week
7
Meet with the academic success coach
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the worst thing that could happen?鈥� you ask yourself as you . When you arrive and settle in, they ask how the quarter is going, and at first you say, 鈥淚t鈥檚 going okay.鈥� They continue to ask you questions and mention that they had a challenging time their first quarter at the 91爆料. You decide to tell them how you are actually doing: 鈥淚鈥檝e worked so hard and it鈥檚 as though I don鈥檛 see any of it reflected in my grades. I am homesick and sad to have missed out on new adventures with friends. I鈥檓 just always studying and barely making it!鈥�
The coach listens and says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 completely understandable that you are feeling homesick with all this time spent studying alone. I know when I studied alone and tried to teach myself all of the material my first quarter of college, I was totally exhausted and realized I needed to try new study strategies that would work for me.鈥� You feel relieved that someone understands you, and even more relieved when they share these active studying techniques with you. The coach suggests you start working with others to avoid isolation and collaborate through practice problems. 鈥淵ou can actively study with others by working together through practice problems and having discussions on the material,鈥� they suggest.
Before you leave, they go over what your academic needs and learning styles are so they can coordinate the right resources for you. You end up walking out with a list of CHEM student organizations for group course content discussions, CLUE tutoring to work through problems with and strategies for tackling practice problems. You think, 鈥淚 am so happy that I gave this a shot! You think about whether you should also get some 1:1 tutoring at CLUE or join a study group as you head to finals week.
#9 Decide to go to CLUE tutoring
#10 Head to finals week
8
Dive into study skills with an academic success coach
After going to CLUE tutoring, you are less intimidated in connecting with others. Now that you have gotten support with some of the class concepts, you want to address potential study strategies.
You head in to meet with an academic success coach and they ask how the quarter is going. You say, 鈥淚t鈥檚 going okay,鈥� but they continue to ask you questions and mention that they had a challenging time their first quarter at the 91爆料. You decide to tell them how you are actually doing, 鈥淚鈥檝e worked so hard and it鈥檚 as though I don鈥檛 see any of it reflected in my grades. I am homesick and sad to have missed out on new adventures with friends. I鈥檓 just always studying and barely making it!鈥�
The coach listens and says, 鈥淚t鈥檚 completely understandable that you are feeling homesick with all this time spent studying alone. I know when I studied alone and tried to teach myself all of the material my first quarter of college, I was totally exhausted and realized I needed to try new study strategies.鈥� You feel relieved that someone understands you, and even more relieved when they share these active studying techniques with you. The coach suggests you start working with others to avoid isolation and collaborate through practice problems. 鈥淵ou can actively study with others by working together through practice problems and having discussions on the material,鈥� they suggest.
Before you leave, they give you some great resources. A list of CHEM student organizations for group course content discussions and strategies for tackling practice problems. As you walk out you tell yourself, 鈥淚 think I have a better handle on study strategies I want to try. I鈥檓 going to reach out to these groups today and commit to studying with new friends instead of by myself!鈥� You are very happy you decided to schedule an appointment, and head out for boba to celebrate.
#10 Time for finals!
9
Decide to go to CLUE tutoring
You decide to head over to CLUE after your coaching session, grabbing your chem books and unanswered problems. The CLUE tutor reviews the problems with you and is able to identify what step you were missing. 鈥淚 could tell right away, because that is the step I always forgot and most students struggle with,鈥� they share. It鈥檚 reaffirming to hear that others struggle with the same material, and it feels good to be working with another student. After you complete a few problems, they have you write down the steps you took to solve it. You are grateful to take that with you for later reference. You feel like you have gotten help with some of the concepts you were struggling most with in class. Between the coach and CLUE, you feel ready now for finals.
#10 Head to finals week
10
It’s finals week!
As the week begins, you find yourself thinking 鈥淚鈥檓 definitely more prepared now than I was for midterms. I鈥檝e reviewed the concepts from the CLUE tutor and I鈥檝e been using the active studying techniques from the academic success coach. I鈥檓 ready for this week!鈥�
When final scores arrive, despite your hard work, you discover you are ending the class with a grade lower than what you were expecting. As you reflect on the experience of this first quarter, you wonder if you should sign up to retake the course. The idea alone has you feeling burned out and unmotivated. You ask yourself, 鈥淒o I really belong in STEM? I thought I would be motivated by studying something I could use to help people in a career. What am I doing wrong?鈥�
#11 Reinvigorate your path to STEM
#12 Continue as you have been
#13 Decide to switch majors
11
Reinvigorate your path to STEM
Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your motivation?鈥� When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. 鈥淲hat is my motivation?鈥� you wonder. You pull up a and spend the rest of the evening filling it out. Identifying specific short-term goals for each week, you put them all together toward one major long-term goal.
Keeping on track over the coming weeks helps you regain the motivation you felt before school started and you start to feel less burned out. With your free time you do self-care activities including more calls to your family. On a recent call you share, 鈥淚鈥檝e really been questioning myself and if I belong in STEM.鈥� Your family reminds you of how much of an impact and a difference you can make in your community! You feel inspired again and that is the fuel you need for the next quarter. Keeping your mind on the big picture, you eventually make it through the hardest times. You find yourself enjoying your studies and succeeding. You become a regular at CLUE and also continue meeting with an academic success coach. You feel invigorated and continue on through the school year 鈥� excited for class, happy to share time with new friends and look forward to what the future holds.
This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started 鈥�
12
Continue as you have been
This quarter passes, then the next, and you keep grinding in your CHEM classes. You are so burned out you don鈥檛 even have the motivation to complete your work or reach out for more help. Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your motivation?鈥� When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. 鈥淲hat is my motivation?鈥� you wonder. 鈥淚 really felt like this was an optimal path for helping people and ensuring a great career post-college, but I think there might be another pathway for me to do that,鈥� you tell yourself. You schedule a meeting with your academic adviser, and share your recent self-discovery. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 feel connected to this side of the STEM world anymore. I鈥檝e been thinking about a move toward psychology as a potential field to help people.鈥� Your adviser helps you develop a plan to switch potential majors. You feel invigorated by your new self-discovery and continue on through the school year becoming a regular at CLUE and regularly meeting with an academic success coach. You are excited for class, happy to share time with new friends, and look forward to what the future holds for you.
This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started 鈥�
13
Decide to switch majors
You鈥檝e struggled all year with the question: 鈥淚s STEM really for me?鈥� Thinking back to the conversation you had with the academic success coach, you remember them asking, 鈥淲hat鈥檚 your motivation?鈥� When the year began, your goal was just to pass your classes. 鈥淲hat is my motivation?鈥� you wonder. 鈥淚 really felt like this was an optimal path for helping people and ensuring a great career post-college, but I think there might be another pathway for me to do that,鈥� you tell yourself. You keep coming back to psychology as an option where you could redirect yourself and still be helpful to people in your community. You meet with your adviser for support and together you put plans in place to switch potential majors. You feel invigorated by your new self-discovery and continue on through the school year becoming a regular at CLUE and regularly meeting with an academic success coach. You are excited about class, happy to share time with new friends, and look forward to what the future holds for you.
This is the end of this story, but yours is just getting started 鈥�
This story came together through collaboration. Thank you to these generous and creative colleagues for your work and dedication to this endeavor: Alli Botelho, Danielle Marie Holland, Gracie Pakosz, Ian Teodoro, Jenelle Birnbaum, Kirsten Atik and Mina Zavary. Photo illustrations by Ian Teodoro.
An act of bridging
Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor speaks to his recent experience co-chairing the Mind and Life鈥檚 2022 Summer Research Institute, the act of bridging and the greater purpose for a public research university and our work here at Undergraduate Academic Affairs.
15 Seconds at a Time: The CELE Center [video]
In this video, CELE Center Executive Director Francesca Lo takes on the challenge of explaining the 91爆料 Community Engagement Center and Leadership Education (CELE) Center in less than 15 seconds at a time.
A quarter century with Riverways
After 25 years of service to the 91爆料 and our local and statewide communities, Christine Stickler will be retiring July 2022. Stickler, founder and director of , has transformed the learning and growth of countless students, connecting over 1,000 91爆料 students with thousands of students in rural and tribal communities across Washington state. Riverways Education Partnership is a K-12 outreach program, and part of the , where programs are centered around community-engaged learning, democratic engagement, leadership education, student success and place-based initiatives.
In the past two+ decades, Stickler has created pathways connecting 10,000 91爆料 students with tutoring and mentoring opportunities in K-12 schools and organizations to address inequities in education. She has strengthened bridges between the 91爆料 and community colleges through the Riverways Guides program connecting Native 91爆料 students with Native youth to envision pathways toward higher education through community college. With unwavering commitment and steadfast vision, she has built dynamic partnerships including Neah Bay Elementary School where storytelling and digital literacy are used to support students in imagining their futures.
As Stickler prepares to retire from Riverways Education Partnerships, she shares her thoughts on her accomplishments as director, the transformation of undergraduates through the outreach program, and the enduring impact of relationships and storytelling.
Editor鈥檚 note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
It has changed me in every way you can imagine
How has the experience and work of impacted and changed you?
It has changed me in every way you can imagine. I became aware of the amazing state that we live in. I spent the last 25 years traveling to remote, rural and tribal communities getting to know the community members. The reason the program is as strong as it is today, is because relationships were formed. I’ve been the incredibly fortunate recipient of the friendships that come from going back to community. That’s number one. Number two is the chance to have worked with literally thousands of undergraduate students who have been drawn to a program that said, 鈥淒o you want to experience life outside of Seattle? Do you want to experience what it means to travel to a tribal community and learn from the people that live there?鈥�
A quick story about Pipeline
Riverways was formerly called the Pipeline Project. We got the name 25 years ago as part of an initial funding grant from Coca-Cola. After 20 years, the name had too much connotation to the school-to-prison pipeline. We worked with First Nation students and with , a Native language and law professor at 91爆料. Tammy came up with the name Riverways, which we all absolutely loved. It’s beautiful.
Then there was Riverways
I think of all the undergraduates that I’ve been able to meet, have them do the experience, who then came back to be a team leader. Many of those students are now close friends of mine 鈥� my life has been changed by the people that I’ve met. I鈥檝e gotten to work with some incredible colleagues at the 91爆料, [including] community partners, 91爆料 alumni and colleagues that have enriched my life and shown me things I never would have dreamed of.
And the K-12 students! In 2006 I met Auston Jimmicum, member of the Makah Tribe, in our Neah Bay program when he was in elementary school. Auston came to 91爆料 as a freshman, became part of the and went back to his community. Now he’s in law school at the University of Idaho.
When I think about it, the bittersweet part about retiring is that I feel I’ve had one of the best jobs in the world. I’ve loved it. I’ve been able to show my passion and have a way for that passion to develop and be nurtured. I don’t know how many people can say that about their jobs. I feel blessed.
How has the program evolved over the years?
We鈥檝e connected on a deeper level with and . Their support has meant the world to us. With funding from CAIIS we started the program. We鈥檝e been able to hire Native 91爆料 students, previously community college students, who mentor kids in tribal communities. They encourage them to consider community college as a pathway to higher ed. That idea came to be because of our relationship with CAIIS and the AISP. We also have had an amazing partnership over the past 16 years with , tribal liaison at the . She introduced us to the . These partnerships have grown over the years and have enriched the program. Not only do we have really strong partnerships now, but we have built solid funding.
I believe with all my heart that the relationships form the basis of the work.
What do you see as the current state of educational justice and where things are moving?
One of our goals was looking at issues of educational inequity anywhere we found it and trying to be part of the solution or part of the resources going towards dealing with those issues of inequity. In Seattle, it was targeting schools that had the lowest test scores and the least access to resources. Around the state, we learned by our travels to rural and tribal communities. What we are asked to address when we go into those districts is the idea of making sure there’s no barriers in the minds of the kids we’re working with, that they have a pathway that could lead them to higher ed if that’s what they choose to do, and that there are resources to support them. That if they do come to the 91爆料, resources like and the w菨色菨b蕯altx史 – Intellectual House will provide them a home away from their communities.
Can you speak to a highlight you’ve had in collaboration with undergrads?
Staying around for 25 years, one of the beautiful things about it is that I’ve had a number of students who did the program as elementary school students out in rural tribal schools and ended up at 91爆料. That said, this program had such an impact on me, I want to be part of it and go back out. One of our alternative spring break programs, , is where students go into the community for a week and help kids write stories and publish a book about identity and place. I’ve had undergraduates come up to me and go, I still have my book!
Right now we are in the midst of putting out the magazine for this year, themed 鈥淎 Poem Is a Possibility.鈥�
We were able to work with Washington state poet laureate, Rena Priest, who is just amazing. She trained the 91爆料 students on how to do poetry with youth in a way that they didn’t even know they were writing poems! It was just beautiful!
The incredible richness we have in this state
I believe we’re at a very exciting time. In the last three or four years, I’ve seen a seismic shift towards recognizing the importance of the incredible richness we have in this state. Recognizing the Indigenous and rural communities. We now have more outside funding and University attention. My goal was that my legacy would be that the person that came into this job would not have to struggle for funding and would be able to just focus on the work, so we’re in a better place today than we’ve ever been in 25 years.
The importance of stories
What are you most excited about in this next adventure in your life?
My passion is writing with kids and helping kids to discover the amazing voice they have. So my dream is, I want to see if in six months or so I could possibly write a grant and work with arts organizations to get a mobile publishing center. An RV that would go around to rural and tribal communities and help kids publish their writings.I am also really excited about doing some arts and writing activities with refugee immigrant communities here in Seattle. Art and writing is what I want to do. One of the things I’ve learned so powerfully over the years is that people are desperate to tell their stories, and don鈥檛 have the chance or opportunity to do it.
I just feel blessed that I have had a program that has allowed so many people to find that place, to share their voice and to share their story.
Honors Director Vicky Lawson prepares for next adventure
After more than three decades of service to the 91爆料, Vicky Lawson will retire at the end of the academic year. Lawson, professor of geography and poverty researcher, has spent the past eight years directing the , contributing to the deepening of its interdisciplinary focus and approach to intentional community building, innovative thinking and global citizenship.
Lawson is past president of the Association of American Geographers and former chair of the Department of Geography. Having worked across South and North America on informal economies, women鈥檚 work and poverty, her classes focus on the intersections of poverty, inequality and feminist care ethics. In addition to her leadership in the Honors Program, she is co-director of the , a global research network that aims to expand thinking about the causes of poverty in both rich and poor countries. During her tenure at the 91爆料, she has served as adjunct professor in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and as a faculty affiliate of the West Coast Poverty Center.
As Lawson prepares to pass the role of Honors Program director to Stephanie Smallwood, she shares her thoughts on her accomplishments as director, the transformation of undergraduates through the interdisciplinary program, and the enduring impact of the Honors Program.
Honors broadened my view
How has the Honors Program most impacted and changed you?
With a 35-year career in the geography department and College of Arts and Sciences, coming over to Honors changed my perspective on undergraduate education and the University as a whole. Honors broadened my view of the University, in terms of who holds the University up and how, and in terms of the breadth of interests and capacities of students from all across the University. Honors spans the entire campus [and includes] students, instructors and classes from every college. It was a new vantage point for me of the brilliance of students regardless of what corner of campus or what background they come from.
I teach a class on houselessness and one particular student from aeronautics engineering made a profound contribution to an art exhibit my students installed with Real Change News through a comparative historical photography project of Seattle. It was a wakeup call for me to realize that it’s not just geographers who know how to read a city.
In addition to appreciating the breadth and curiosity of the students, coming over to UAA was coming into a space that is driven by professional staff. I came to appreciate just how staff hold up the University and how much they contribute. Getting to work closely with incredibly talented staff was a real gift because you see the commitment and the depth of the work they do. In Honors, all the staff are leaders. It’s a super creative space.
A deep commitment to inviting in the students
How has the Honors Program changed in the past eight years?
It was already an incredibly innovative, complex, interdisciplinary space when I got here. I don’t take a lot of credit for the brilliance of this program. I just came in and tried to amplify and support what the staff were already doing. These were things that were already happening, but we have been deeply introspective about difference and intersectional equity in our program. Honors has evolved tremendously over its , especially over the past two decades. has been a leader on this work, but everybody’s been involved in understanding who our students are and where they come from. We have been committed to bringing in first-generation students and students of color and understanding how we’re doing compared to the University as a whole. We have a lot more work to do, but we do have a deep commitment to inviting in students who saw the label 鈥淗onors鈥� and thought, 鈥淲ell, that’s not a space for me.鈥� Instead [we] invite them to know that, actually, participating in Honors is being part of an education that honors the University. Everybody鈥檚 backgrounds, experience and knowledge brings brilliance. It’s been a major part of what we’ve been doing. Juliana has led on it, and everybody has leaned in very seriously on that work.
Interdisciplinary education, experiential learning, and being in community
Another area that I’m particularly personally proud of in Honors is this incredibly creative space that has always rested on pillars of interdisciplinary education, experiential learning and being in community. I wanted to invite the whole campus into this space with our students, and one of the ways that we did that was through our . We built an annual event that puts people from different walks of life in conversation with each other and asks them to talk about an issue that students themselves raised. We pull the freshmen in and say, 鈥淲hat do you care about? What is keeping you up at night?鈥� We’ve done this now since 2015. Each year we’ve filled a ballroom with 500 people and we’ve hosted the event online with hundreds of people. By asking the students what they want us to talk about, we put the students in charge of their education the minute they walk through the door. Honors students learn that, at 91爆料, we listen to them, that we build the program around their interests. At Global Challenges, they get to see what it’s like to have three people who are very accomplished in their fields, in a humble conversation about a really big topic for which there is no simple answer. That’s an example of showing the larger community what Honors is all about, what our students are all about, what our pedagogy is all about.
We are building that broader, richer sense of who we are and why we do what we do and inviting everybody. We are building something that’s for everyone.
What is the impact you’ve witnessed of interdisciplinary research?
One of the things that Honors did was create a space where I could literally teach my driving passion. In my research, I had a long-standing relationship with along with , my collaborator. Each year in Honors I’ve taught a class on poverty and houselessness. A couple of years ago, we did a deep dive with Real Change News as collaborators to bring the portrait project to campus. I gave the students the responsibility to curate the exhibit to run for three weeks and build a launch event in the Allen Library. Twenty-five students collaborated together on every aspect of bringing that exhibit to campus, they collaborated with our Real Change News colleagues who were at the core of the project. Many of the students who were involved have come back to me to talk about where that experience took them.
Students will rise to any challenge
This morning, I sat with a student applying to medical school, who was in another iteration of that same class. She talked about how doing medicine was one thing, but thinking about it through the lens of social justice, access, historical racism and how that shapes who has access to care, was transformative for her. She understood that in a deep way because she’d been part of that class. I create a class space where the students teach each other and they pick up and carry that work and take it to places that are important to them.
This last quarter I had a group of students create a zine, called , in collaboration with homeless youth in the U District. It is full of incredible art, essays, cartoons and drawings. The students did the work of assembling this art aimed at elevating the voice of homeless youth, about their ideas of what the future could look like. This was a chance for our students to collaborate with the youth and to elevate their vision, their brilliance and their ideas. I’ve come to realize working with our students that, literally, they will rise to any challenge. They will mount an art exhibit, they’ll create a zine, they will do collaborations that are deep, they will face up to the impossibly difficult questions of climate change and poverty, and houselessness.
It鈥檚 been transformative for me working with these students.
How do you see the impact of the Honors Program on the students as they graduate?
What we’re trying to do and what we’ve really committed ourselves to with Honors, is to support the students to complicate their ideas and work, and to be brave about it. So if they think they’re going to do medicine, can we work with them to think about what it means to be a doctor? What does it mean to be a doctor that cares about social justice? How do we invite students into spaces in a way that is actually enabling? That鈥檚 what Honors classes do. And the students take the work places we never thought of. I have students that worked for the , a student who’s up in Skagit County as an organic farmer, students at Harvard, students in medical school, a student working on climate change activism. They learn that they can be brilliant in any number of different ways.
We have brought together a community
What鈥檚 something that comes to the forefront that you are very proud about?
I am proud of how we’ve connected to broader communities 鈥� and gets credit here. We have worked hand in glove to bring together a community of alumni. We’ve built an advisory board that leans in and shows up. We have built financial and moral support for this program at a level that did not exist when we came in. We have an endowed . We built an endowed that’s still growing. It’s about people believing in us and people in the community really reaching in and supporting what we do. And we’ve got an incredible group of volunteers now. We just had the most successful Husky Giving Day which is less about the money and more about the fact that over 70 people thought Honors was special enough to make a gift. I feel really proud of how we’ve expanded our community with people who deeply care and want to support our students because of how they think and what they mean to the future.
What are you most excited about with the next adventure?
I’m excited about not being busy! I鈥檝e always been on a mission to be an academic and teach. I’m very curious what life has to offer if I’m not doing those things. I’m curious about what my next chapter is going to be and I don’t think I’m going to really truly know that until I stop. I am quite sure it’s going to continue to have to do with activism around impoverishment and houselessness. There are a lot of things I think about and wonder what my skills might do to make an impact. I do know that I’m going to grow a garden. I’m going to travel and I’m going to raise a horse and train it.
Any last thoughts?
I came into Honors and I realized that this is where the work is. Undergraduate education, especially at a public university, is the place that I believe you can have the most impact. Undergraduate students have infinite paths open to them. Honors has redoubled my commitment to undergraduate education as a place of praxis and place of personal and professional transformation that’s really important. The staff in Honors are just quite remarkable and they taught me every day what is possible in undergraduate education for life.
Undergraduate education is the place I believe you can have the most impact.
91爆料 sophomore Jonathan Kwong awarded selective Udall Scholarship
91爆料 sophomore Jonathan Kwong was recently named a Udall Scholar! Kwong is pursuing a bachelor鈥檚 degree in environmental science and resource management with a minor in oceanic and Pacific Islander studies.
This year, the Udall Foundation awarded 55 scholarships to college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to American Indian nations or to the environment. More than 380 candidates from across the country applied for this selective scholarship, with award recipients receiving up to $7,000 each. The Udall Scholarship honors the legacies of Morris Udall and Stewart Udall, whose careers held significant impact on American Indian self-governance and stewardship of lands and resources.
鈥淚鈥檓 really happy and overjoyed. What the Udall Scholarship means to me is I鈥檓 able to continue doing my research, and it鈥檚 such an honor. I will be able to continue meeting with professors, continue learning more and doing the work without having to worry about finances,鈥� shared Kwong. They cite the additional benefit of this award granting them time to make friends, connections and develop new mentor relationships.
A dedicated researcher, scholar and storyteller, Kwong is focused on uplifting traditional ecological knowledge within the environmental science fields and cites their upbringing and heritage from Guam as essential to their understanding of land, nature, resources and history. Kwong鈥檚 interdisciplinary studies have given them the opportunity and resources to actively create a pathway rooted in community, as they become a scientist who is both equitable and effective.
鈥淢y Indigenous perspective is they鈥檙e not separate 鈥� academia, research, storytelling, education. They鈥檙e all connected and it鈥檚 only really the socially constructed boundaries that separate them into different subjects and disciplines,鈥� says Kwong.
With an intersectional-justice-focused lens, Kwong is actively working to make environmental science accessible and equitable. Teaching elementary through high school students, they have created anti-racist science curricula, developed podcasts and designed board games to increase engagement, awareness and overall impact.
Kwong is no stranger to making contributions and remains personally dedicated to community-building toward the greater collective. Kwong leads the 91爆料 student organization and actively participates in community work with organizations including Equity Institute, King County Airport Community Coalition and Root of Our Youth. They see a fundamental connection between all their diverse avenues of interest and research.
鈥淚 think research and academia has helped me identify terms. Research has helped me be able to look for biases, look for the details. Storytelling has been able to help me communicate the idea. Education has helped me work with students to bring change,鈥� shared Kwong. They remain steadfast in their dedication to their own education, and to uplifting and sharing awareness within the community.
Kwong has additionally been selected for the 2022 NOAA Ernest F. Hollings Undergraduate Scholarship and has an upcoming internship at Smithsonian Environmental Research Center鈥檚 Biogeochemistry Lab. Previous awards and honors for Kwong include a 2021 Doris Duke Conservation Scholar for University of California Santa Cruz and the 2021 91爆料 Alumni Association Homecoming Scholar.
About the Udall Scholarship
The is open to college sophomores and juniors for leadership, public service and commitment to issues related to Native American nations or to the environment. Udall Scholars come from all majors and fields of study. Recent Udall Scholars have majored in environmental sciences and policy studies, agriculture, political science, natural resource management and American Indian studies, to name just a few areas.
About the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards
The Udall Undergraduate Scholarship process is supported by the (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.
More about Jonathan, a Q&A
Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
I study environmental science and resource management and I minor in Oceanic and Pacific Islander study. That’s been a really cool and unique combination. My main focus I want to get out of environmental science is traditional ecological knowledge, especially in dismantling the extractive system of Western science. It’s been interesting trying to balance those two out.
Asking, how do I learn science and learn the technologies and the methods while also being critical of it.
There’s this thing called parachute science, when research scientists swoop into a community. They collect the data, they do their thing, they swoop out without giving back to the community, without really contributing. That usually happens a lot in coral reef research, and, as someone who was raised in Guam, my heritage is rooted in, 鈥渉ow do I not be extractive鈥�? Especially [considering] the stories that I’ve been told and the history I’ve learned from the land, [I want to ask]: How do I be a scientist in a way that is both equitable and effective?
During my freshman year, I had just started exploring the word intersectionality and what that meant to me. It was really cool to go into that mindset. I was reading about water systems, and then seeing it in class and thinking, 鈥淲hat else do I want to learn more about?鈥� I gradually found myself free floating all throughout science. I did classes in museum studies, disability justice and law, and gender law. I wanted to see how there could be maximum inclusion, maximum equity. That goes into processes, and there’s so many identities out there beyond race, so everyone can bring something to the table, but how are we getting people to speak up and how are we getting people to uplift their voices?
I’ve hosted a storytelling event called 鈥淰oices in American ethnic studies.鈥� Counter-narratives highlight voices that are ignored, so it鈥檚 important to have discussions with the affected people present. There’s so much, 鈥減eople of color are suffering.鈥� Especially regarding the Pacific Islands, [people say,] 鈥渢hey’re sinking, they’re drowning. In the next 20 years, they’ll be gone.鈥� People still live there. And people still exist. So what are those stories? [I want to uplift] the counter stories, counter narratives that can be told about these cultures, about how these [people] are not just statistics that go away in 20 years, but how [they] will continue to fight and solve a problem that was not their own making.
So anti-racism has been a really big thing that I’ve been trying to get into and especially working with the community. Ever since I created my own [anti-racist science] curricula, I was piloting it in classrooms. I was invited to teach it. And I gradually got to know educators of color. Now we have a racial healing circle with educators of color across Washington state where we’ve talked about issues with access and education. We ask what’s wrong with accessibility and equity and how are people being mistreated? How are people being isolated and attacked? And how are they also not being acknowledged when these things happen?
I鈥檓 a community organizer for King County International Airport Community Coalition. This work is focused on stopping the expansion of King County International Airport, especially since they originally were trying to expand into places like Beacon Hill and Georgetown, low income and communities of color. This is an obvious sign of gentrification. We look at how we are bringing in neighbors. I鈥檝e also learned so much about air pollution and the history here.
I think just living within Seattle, Washington, it’s great to be able to do the science, go to the parks, go to the rivers and test. But it鈥檚 even better to work with the communities. Work with the King County International Airport Community Coalition and work with educators to not only solve issues locally, but to bring awareness through education.
I’m part of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program. So half of my classes are different disciplines smashed together and they create something really beautiful. I took a disability, gender and law class through Honors and brought that disability perspective, especially highlighting people of color with a disability, into discussions about what鈥檚 excluded when we make trails, when we build green infrastructure. When we say 鈥渙h, we should just get rid of all the roads and create a bypass鈥� but people with a wheelchair need cars. You know, if we get rid of all elevators because they’re electric and we make stairs because they’re more eco friendly? Who’s going to be claiming that, because it’s definitely not the wheelchair user.
Learning these nuances is incredibly helpful in doing the decolonizing work within myself. Another set of classes that I took were solving issues in museum spaces and decolonizing ethnomusicology archives. What does the colonial history of archives look like? How have they helped and harmed? Discussion repatriation and land back in the context of institutions helped me learn more about how prevalent colonialism is within all fields, including my own. Studying environmental science comes with going to natural reserves, like Friday Harbor Laboratories or Pack Forest or UC Natural Reserve System. But these research places are still stolen. I want to learn more about how to re-indigenize or truly decolonize spaces as I continue my work.
We have to do the equity work within ourselves before we do the work outside. If we never internalize what equity means to us, then our actions fall flat. Community activism has been helpful in putting action to my words. I might identify a lot of issues, but now I’m finally able to act upon them. I’m able to have a community and come together with other people and look into it. Look at educational disparities, look at lack of access to technology, airport expansion 鈥� and look at why these are wrong. We can work with councilmembers, talk with legislators and ask who is being left out of the conversation. We can work to not speak for other people but to uplift people鈥檚 voices.
Stephanie Smallwood named director of Honors Program
Congratulations to Stephanie Smallwood, acclaimed professor and historian, who has been appointed the new director of the , officially beginning her term in September, 2022.
The University Honors Program, , serves as an academic core of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, bringing students and faculty from every corner of campus together for original learning opportunities focused on collaborative, cross-disciplinary curriculum, experiential learning, research and critical reflection.
In the past eight years under the direction of geography professor and poverty researcher, Victoria Lawson, the Honors Program has contributed to the deepening of its interdisciplinary focus and approach to intentional community building, innovative thinking and global citizenship. As Lawson prepares to retire from the 91爆料, she expresses admiration for Honors鈥� incoming director, stating: 鈥淚 am a huge fan of Dr. Smallwood and I am confident she will love leading within this community, as I have.鈥�
Fostering collective and diverse brilliance
Honors by the numbers聽
The 91爆料 Honors Program facilitates Interdisciplinary, College and Departmental Honors for over 1,400 undergraduates annually.
83% of Honors students come from public high schools.
100+ 91爆料 majors represented by Honors students and faculty.
70% say Interdisciplinary Honors admission is a top reason they chose the 91爆料.
Smallwood says she鈥檚 excited by the Honors Program鈥檚 trajectory and sees great opportunities to continue expanding this interdisciplinary educational hub at our public research university. Smallwood鈥檚 vision of fostering collective and diverse brilliance aligns with the program鈥檚 long arc toward education that centers public needs and un-siloed, collaborative inquiry.
鈥淚nterdisciplinarity informs my scholarship, my mentoring, my teaching, and informs everything I do,鈥� shared Smallwood. A narrow singularly disciplinary lens cannot adequately approach the questions which animate her work, or the questions that remain most urgent and pressing to our society today.
鈥淯ndergraduate Academic Affairs is a unit devoted to changing lives of students by deepening their 91爆料 experience,鈥� shares Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor. 鈥淪tephanie Smallwood has the vision, knowledge and experience to move the program and experience of students into a future that is much in need of their potential to help make the world better.鈥�
Guiding students in intellectual exploration
Smallwood is an associate professor in the , where she holds the Dio Richardson Endowed professorship, and she has a joint appointment in the . She has devoted the past 15 years at the 91爆料 to undergraduate teaching and mentorship on the histories of slavery, race and colonialism in the early modern Atlantic world. Guiding students in their exploration of the challenging problems that have profoundly shaped our world remains as fresh and rewarding for her today as when she began her career as a teacher-scholar nearly 25 years ago.
Her book 鈥溾�� (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007) was awarded the 2008 Frederick Douglass Book Prize; the award for best book written in English on slavery or abolition by the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University; and was a finalist for the 2008 First Book Prize of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians.
“The 91爆料 is so fortunate that Professor Stephanie Smallwood has accepted a three-year term as director of the Honors Program. Professor Smallwood is a prize-winning historian, gifted teacher and exemplary University citizen. She will bring her gifts of shrewd analysis, excellent judgment and visionary leadership to this position,鈥� shared Glennys Young, chair of the Department of History.
A history story
Smallwood鈥檚 interest in history began as an undergraduate at Columbia University, stemming from her involvement in anti-apartheid demonstrations. In 1985, on the anniversary of the assasination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Smallwood demonstrated in a domestic divestment campaign. When camping out on the steps of an administrative building for three weeks was followed by a summer of disciplinary hearings, she was led directly toward learning more about the history behind the political actions she found herself engaging in.
For the first time in her life, Smallwood began to read African history 鈥� and found herself blown away. She spent the last two years of her undergraduate studies taking graduate-level seminars. 鈥淚 knew then that history was what I wanted to do and study,鈥� said Smallwood. Under the mentorship of , she was guided towards an interdisciplinary M.A. in African and African-American studies at Yale University.
Smallwood became a research assistant to renowned historian , who was beginning to examine the 17th- and 18th-century slave trade. During days spent in the Yale library鈥檚 microfilm room, Smallwood poured over newspapers from 17th century Maryland and Virginia, reading the announcements of arrivals of slave ships. Her time there would prove to be invaluable, as she began to piece together the literal connections between African and African-American history. 鈥淚t was the first time, that past, that period, was animated for me intellectually,鈥� she said. Transcended beyond just responding to contemporary politics, she sought out to study the entire expanse of Black history. Smallwood would go on to earn her Ph.D. in early African-American history at Duke University.
鈥淚 am incredibly excited to see Professor Smallwood鈥檚 leadership and inclusionary vision applied to the Honors Program as its community continues to grow and build connections across campus. Her support and encouragement enabled us students to reach our full potential and I know she will do the same for the many students who come under her guidance as she takes on the role of director,鈥� shared Erin Nicole Kelly, senior.
The role imagination plays
The interdisciplinary impact of her studies and research have informed the lens for all of her ongoing research, leadership and publications. Smallwood recognizes that a key component of the role of a historian is to imagine. 鈥淭he fact of the matter is that historians have to imagine, to tell stories.鈥� She cites the fiction of novelist Toni Morrison as being in relationship and conversation with her historical research. 鈥淲e have to be able to use the gifts that only a Toni Morrison can bring to the table, to guide us in how to dare to imagine. You can鈥檛 ask good questions if you can鈥檛 imagine outside of the box,鈥� Smallwood said.
Smallwood connects the value of the Honors Programs to its interdisciplinary imagination. A program that curates small classes and dynamic curriculum where students experience, as she describes, 鈥渢he freedom of when you’re not already locked into a particular methodology or a set of rules that govern a particular discipline.鈥�
Her recent experiences teaching the classes, Honors Historical Method and Race and Slavery Across the Americas, have served Smallwood as continued affirmations of what鈥檚 possible in intimate learning environments. 鈥淜nowledge production happens best when we put different disciplinary methods in relationship to one another,鈥� she shared. 鈥淥ften our best and most innovative learning happens in collaboration.鈥�
Our best learning happens in collaboration
Smallwood remains continually fueled and reinvigorated as an educational collaborator and mentor. Facilitating class experiences for undergraduates to engage in intellectual discovery and risk taking, Smallwood is focused on new approaches to learning that can meaningfully advance a social justice mission.
Smallwood sees her appointment as director of the Honors Program as an honor within itself. She intends to use her skills and background of scholarship and teaching in a public research university to serve students and boost their capacity to imagine, contribute and make change. 鈥淭o be at a public research institution like the 91爆料 means you鈥檙e in a community of extraordinary scholars with extraordinary resources,鈥� said Smallwood. 鈥淚t鈥檚 the best possible combination of what it takes to be a scholar and for the largest impact you can have on reaching and touching people.鈥�
Welcome, Stephanie Smallwood!
The community and discovery of undergraduate research celebrated at 25th Undergraduate Research Symposium
Join students, faculty, staff and the broader 91爆料 community on May 20, 2022, as we celebrate the 25th Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. Engage in conversations surrounding the problems and questions of our times. Gather for innovative research that matters most to you.
15 Seconds at a Time: The Resilience Lab [video]
In this video, 91爆料 Resilience Lab Director Megan Kennedy takes on the challenge of explaining the Resilience Lab in less than 15 seconds at a time.