Virginia RodriguezGrad student Virginia Rodriguez relates an early childhood memory of working with her family picking grapes in the San Joaquin Valley in California. The adults and older kids actually picked the grapes, but 6-year old Virginia’s job was to lay out the paper used to dry the grapes to become raisins. “It was a special kind of paper, kind of like butcher paper, but really, rea ...Read more →
Kirsty Frew, French and Economics, Undergraduate
Picture this: you’re about to graduate from college. You’ve double majored in French and Economics. You’ve held a part-time job at a frame shop, and you just finished a year as a clerk at a law firm. You’re passionate about helping others. How do you get these seemingly unrelated factors to gel into a career? (After all, translator/economist/sales associate/lawyer/doc ...Read more →
Brooke Anderson, Business Finance, Undergraduate
Brooke Anderson never believed she was “Division I material.” Despite lettering in three high school sports, this unassuming San Diego native flew under the intercollegiate recruiting radar.
It wasn’t until midway through her sophomore year in high school that Anderson found her true athletic calling. After a stress fracture in her right foot sidelined her during soccer season, s ...Read more →
Dana Badeen, Industrial Design, Undergraduate
When UW junior Dana Badeen started college, she had her sights set on the stars—literally. Badeen enrolled at the University of Michigan to pursue an engineering degree that would lead to a career as an astronaut but midway through her college career she was struck by two simultaneous realizations.
First, those who succeed in the space industry are the best of the best and, while Badeen was ...Read more →
Mary Gates Scholar, Jaebediah Gardner credits his parents and grandparents for instilling within him a “huge self-confidence” and an appreciation for building community. But as a freshman, when he shared his feelings about not seeing anything on the campus that reflected his African American heritage, his family’s response was not what he expected. At the end of his freshman year, his ...Read more →
Lokesh Ramani, MSIM, Information Management, Graduate
Did you know the UW Career Center has its own blog? If you’ve ever read it, you may be familiar with Lokesh Ramani, a MSIM graduate who wrote for the blog while enrolled as a UW grad student. At the age of 22, this native of India had already received his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering when he decided to come to the United States and pursue his interest in software. After working ...Read more →
He’s not exactly Jack Black (thank goodness!) but Adam Burdick does share some similarities with Jack’s character in the movie School of Rock. Most principally, Adam has an undeniable passion for music, he’s a dedicated teacher, and he runs a new music school.
Like many individuals who find themselves in grad school, Adam is a man of many interests and talents. As an undergradu ...Read more →
Brianna Blaser, Ph.D., Women Studies, Graduate
Remember playing tug of war as a child? Think back to recess or gym class and envision two teams pulling on opposite ends of a rope, each trying to pull the other across a dividing line. One team tugs hard and makes a little progress, but then the other team rallies. Perhaps one team finally overpowers the other, but in many cases the teams are of equal strength and the contest is a draw.
Many ...Read more →
Kim Hall, Communications, Undergraduate
Kimberly Hall’s job with Seattle’s Convention &Visitors Bureau requires her to “sell” our city as a great place to host all manner of events – everything from conventions and meetings, to reunions and weddings. For those of us who know and love Seattle it sounds like a “dream job” and for those who know and love Kimberly Hall, it’s a perfect match.
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Read more →Verena Hess, Ph.D., Communications, Graduate
GO Slugs! Go Slugs! Go! Go! Go Slugs! Wait, were you expecting a cheer for UW Huskies? Alright, alright that’s coming next, but before that, we present the story of a woman named Verena Hess. Verena graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a Bachelor’s in US history and decided to head for a higher road (literally and figuratively) to the University of Washington for graduate school.
However, ...Read more →
