Last week, the Office of External Affairs hosted Husky for a Day @ UW. The day took our guests from pre-application through graduation, providing an inside look into the Husky student experience for participants. Guests included state and federal legislative staff and higher education partners.
Participants started the day with a presentation from Associate Vice Provost Philip Ballinger on the holistic application review process. Next, everyone had a chance to stretch their legs while a student guide took the group on a tour of campus. Our final presentation of the morning was from Assistant Vice Provost Kay Lewis with an in-depth look at financial aid.
Interim Provost Baldasty, Dean Taylor, LeAnne Wiles and students discuss the Husky Experience
During the lunch hour, the group was joined by Interim Provost Gerald Baldasty, Undergraduate Academic Affairs Dean Ed Taylor, First-Year Programs Director LeAnne Jones Wiles, and three Huskies – Thomas Nugyen, Marisol Diaz and Aegron Ethen. The panel discussed and answered questions about the Husky Experience. Topics included the key skills, knowledge and abilities that are transferred from UW classrooms into meaningful student experiences like studying abroad, jobs and internships, research projects and participation in community organizations.
After lunch, it was time for class as participants joined students in Dr. Scott Freeman‘s Biology 180 course for a professional development session where they learned “how to be a Dawg.”
Learning how to be a Dawg
Finally, the day concluded with a stop at the UW Alumni Association office to hear about the work they do with Huskies post-graduation. The External Affairs team also took a moment to say thank you to participants for their ongoing work in support of higher education and our Husky students.
Meet UW professor Eve Riskin, who along with her colleague, Joyce Yen are closing the gender gap in engineering. They have created the Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity, or LEAD workshops, to teach other schools to follow the example of the UW with an on-line course LEAD-it-Yourself.
This week, the Office of External Affairs hosted Innovation Day @ UW. The day showcased how the university is contributing to the growth of our region’s innovation ecosystem, and is finding solutions to today’s major challenges. Visitors included members of the state legislature, state legislative staff, federal delegation staff, local/regional staff, and economic development leaders.
Vice Provost Vikram Jandhyala presents to Innovation Day at CoMotion
Participants started the day with a visit to CoMotion, the University’s collaborative innovation hub. Visitors heard pitches from a number of UW startups in the CoMotion Incubator, and had a chance to see their technology. Next, participants had a conversation with Vice Provost for Innovation Vikram Jandhyala, who overviewed CoMotion’s efforts to take ideas to impact.
A UW student shows off a prototype to translate sign language being developed in the CoMotion MakerSpace.
Vice Provost Jandhyala then facilitated a panel discussion with a UW faculty member, Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and undergraduate student who shared their experiences and insights from launching companies across a wide range of fields based on UW research and technology. The group’s morning agenda wrapped up with stops at CoMotion’s MakerSpace and Wet Lab. In both spaces, participants got a behind the scenes look at the technology, expertise, and facilities available to students and entrepreneurs on campus — from bench space to 3D printers, laser cutters, specialized hand tools, and more.
Over the lunch hour Innovation Day attendees were welcomed by Vice President of External Affairs Randy Hodgins, who introduced Dr. Norm Beauchamp, Chair of both the Faculty Senate and the Department of Radiology.
Dr. Beauchamp shared how his stroke research at UW is changing lives with a very poignant patient story. He also discussed the global and local impacts of his research and service work, with examples spanning collaboration with a research team in China, to volunteering as the Medical Director for the Seattle Free Clinic. Dr. Beauchamp told the group he came to UW because of the unparalleled collaborative potential. The University drives the innovation mindset beyond the campus, inspiring action in the wider community.
After lunch, participants walked across campus to the Molecular Engineering & Sciences building, which houses the Clean Energy Institute. The group learned about the UW’s efforts to accelerate a clean energy future from Dan Schwartz, Director of CEI. Visits to the Hillhouse and Ginger labs emphasized how state and federal investment is being leveraged to spur new discoveries in next generation materials for solar cells.
A student researcher demos a solar ink process to Innovation Day attendees in the CEI Lab.
Innovation Day ended at StartUp Hall to get an up close look at the public/private partnership powering the U District’s hub for entrepreneurial talent. Chris DeVore, CEO of Tech Stars, talked about the vision for Startup Hall and UW’s efforts to catalyze the U District into an Innovation District.
Visit to Startup Hall
Following a tour of Startup Hall’s co-working and tenant spaces, participants received a presentation from Connie Bourassa-Shaw, Director of the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship at the Foster School. Several of the Buerk Center’s students and alums were also on hand to share their entrepreneurial experiences.
The day concluded with a thank you from the External Affairs team, and an open invitation to elected officials and their staff to continue engaging with the campus community, whether it be in the innovation space or any other area of interest.
“The University of Washington is the most innovative public university in the world — and among all universities, public and private, it ranks fourth — according to a new rating by Reuters, the online news service. Only Stanford, MIT and Harvard do more to foster innovation, Reuters says.”
“Among Washington’s public research universities, the University of Washington and its branch campuses perform well; the average annual cost to attend for federal financial aid recipients was under $12,000 a year, and 10 years after they entered college, the median income of students who received financial aid was more than $50,000 a year. … UW is included in a special list of 30 schools with high graduation rates and low costs for the lowest-income students.”
Via the West Seattle Blog comes a promising update about the latest cohort of students receiving South Seattle College’s 13th year promise scholarship:
We stopped by SSC on Thursday as this year’s group finished the summer jump-start known as “Bridge.” Among those they heard from, SSC president Gary Oertli, who had a personal story to tell:
…
Oertli is a Sealth alum who was one of the first in his family to go to college – the University of Washington, he said, though the accomplishments of which he’s proudest are those of his daughters, both college graduates. He told the students that people who finish college are more likely to have kids who go to college. For students interested in starting at SSC and transferring, he added, they do better at UW than many of those who are there from the start.
Thanks for the shout out to UW, and congrats to SCC and the area grads taking advantage of this promising program!
Learn more about SSC’s 13th year promise scholarship here.
Tiny Tots Development Center is a non-profit center dedicated to servicing underprivileged families in the Puget Sound area. It is receiving some fresh ideas and assistance from students at the Foster School of Business.
The UW Spokane Center is a space for people and ideas to connect in a meaningful way with something they have in common — the spirit of boundlessness, and the pride in being a Husky. Tune in to UW 360 on UWTV to learn more about the new center:
