Student Scholarships
Meet the 2021 Homecoming Scholars
The UWAA is proud to honor six extraordinary students whose stories exemplify Husky adaptability, tenacity and resolve. Each student received a $2,000 scholarship and was recognized at the Homecoming game on Oct. 16, 2021. Congratulations to this year’s Scholars, and many thanks to the UWAA member community. Your dues help support student scholarship programs like this one.
Inyoung Cheong
Law, Ph.D. | Fall 2022
Born and raised in South Korea, Inyoung Cheong has been dedicated to public policies that foster innovation and creativity. As a public official in the South Korean government, she shaped and executed regulations in the communication industry and multi-million funds to support artists. At UW law school, she has researched South Korea’s sector-specific online speech regulations funded by the Fulbright scholarship, while serving multiple leadership roles in minority student associations. Furthermore, she interned for the United Nations to commemorate the UN’s 75th anniversary in 2020 and contributed her legal research to the Administrative Conference of the United States in 2021.
Tiffany-Ashton Gatsby
Medical Anthropology and Global Health; Interdisciplinary Visual Art | 2022
Minor: Diversity
Tiffany-Ashton (they/she) focuses on representing the issues queer-disabled persons deal with by existing in a medicalized and often desexualized body, examining lived experiences while interacting within biomedical systems, pushing back against hegemonic cis-heteropatriarchy and ableism. They plan to continue their research in graduate school and hope to someday establish workshops and art spaces for the queer-disabled community to promote visibility. They are a board member of the Seattle Dyke March, a proud 2021 Husky 100, GSBA and Pride Foundation Scholar, and a member of Mortar Board Honors Society and Parliamentarian of Phi Sigma Pi Honors Fraternity.
Jonathan Kwong
Environmental Science and Resource Management: Restoration Ecology and Environmental Horticulture | 2024
Minor: Oceanography
As a second-year undergraduate in the Interdisciplinary Honors Program, Jonathan Kwong aims to use scientific research as a vehicle to make science equitable, inclusive and responsive. At UW, he is an Ambassador for the College of the Environment and on the Department of Biology’s Antiracism Advisory Team. He is a Doris Duke Conservation Scholar with UC Santa Cruz, where he collaborates with other scholars from across the nation to work with communities on the climate crisis. His goal is to find intersections of traditional ecological knowledge and western knowledge to communicate science accessibly and conduct impactful and lasting environmental research.
Exita Lealofi
Ethnic, Gender, & Labor Studies | UW Tacoma | 2023
Minor: Global Engagements
Exita is a UW Tacoma junior majoring in Ethnic, Gender, and Labor Studies with a minor in Global Engagement. A first-generation student who is passionate about having a voice for the Pacific Islander community, Exita strives to inspire individuals to play a more active role in defining their experiences at the University and beyond. As a student, Exita is a Pack Advisor working with incoming students on campus and the co-founder of the UW Tacoma Pacific Islander Student Alliance, which strives to develop a more critical and comprehensive awareness of PI issues and identity while advocating for PI community needs.
Dominic Min-Trần
Medicine, M.D. | 2024
A queer medical student living with HIV from Renton, WA, Dominic believes in sharing vulnerability and embracing conflict as a modality to create brave spaces, to redefine professionalism, and to build community, particularly in medicine. Dominic has worked with and stands on the shoulders of BIPOC and other queer students, current and former, who laid the foundation to help develop SSB 5228 requiring antiracist medical education and expanding medical training for LGBTQ+ healthcare competency. As a practicing physician, Dominic intends to provide trauma-informed, shame-free care to address inequities in healthcare for their LGBTQ+ and other disenfranchised communities.
Kieanna Stephens
Sociology, Medical Anthropology & Global Health | 2022
Minor: Diversity
A senior from Vancouver, Canada, Kieanna has been an advocate in UW athletics for mental health and racial justice. Passionate about people and personal growth, she believes in equal opportunity and second chances. Through her work with Pongo Poetry Project, Kieanna facilitates poetry writing with incarcerated youth at the King County Juvenile Detention Center inspiring healing and growth from trauma and difficult life experiences. Kieanna plans to pursue a master’s and Ph.D. in Social Work, focusing on juvenile justice and policy, in an effort to provide services and opportunities for youth in and outside of Detention Centers.
