Student Profiles

Eric fcoused his studies on cybersecurity and information assurance with a minor in business administration and hopes to work in project management or cybersecurity after graduation. While at UW Tacoma, he founded Campus Adult Ministry (CAM), a registered student organization, to give back, share his faith, and build community. He is grateful to the guidance he has received from his mentors and proud that he was able to overcome his shyness and lack of ambition to thrive in college.

Jenny Rubario is a recent immigrant to the United States. She transferred to UW Tacoma from Pierce College, where she was a member of Phi Theta Kappa, American Honors, and ASPIRE, a support program for Asian American and Pacific Islander students. Jenny plans to pursue a Business major and hopes to work in the financial sector after graduation.

Truc immigrated to the United States from Vietnam with her family as a child. When they first arrived in the United States, they had had to start all over: adapt to a new place, to a new language, and to everything else that was different. Her interest in the healthcare field was piqued while she looked after her sick grandfather near the end of his life: “I would feed him and help him with his necessities. The one thing that stood out for me was that he always smiled and appreciated all the things I did for him. The feeling I had every time he would smile felt so powerful.” Truc hopes to help others in need by working in the healthcare field after graduation.

Tuyen immigrated to the United States from Vietnam, which she describes as “one of the most influential personal events that has shaped my character through academic and cultural challenges”. It is this immigration experience and the subsequent integration into U.S. society that have helped her build important intercultural skills. Tuyen is active in the Vietnamese Student Association and the Power Lifting Club at UW Tacoma and works at the front desk of the Center for Student Involvement. She hopes to manage her own non-profit organization to provide support and opportunities for families and young adults.

I am from the Republic of Palau, a small and young island nation in the Micronesian region of the Pacific Islands. I came to the U.S. right after high school to go to college. However, due to some financial and personal setbacks, my educational journey has taken quite some time to complete. After transferring to UW-Tacoma from my former schools and changing my major to PPE: Politics and Philosophy, I finally feel that I am on the right track. This has made my learning experience more fun, satisfying, and engaging.

I am interested in law school after my undergraduate studies. My ultimate goal is to move back to Palau with my husband and our son to live there once I have completed law school. I believe that for me personally, studying politics and law holds the key to becoming a competent and conscientious contributing member of Palauan society.

Since moving to Tacoma, WA for college I was introduced to various community members from different cultural disciplines. Each of them has either encouraged, challenged or mentored me to become the person I am today.

An important goal for me was to overcome my shyness and explore the world for what it has to offer. Each and every day I promise myself to seek discomfort to learn more about myself by simply just saying, “YES”. This ranges from riding an electric longboard for the first time to traveling with a group of strangers across the country to help with disaster relief efforts.

My overall goal is to educate individuals on the importance of community. I plan to utilize my role as a student leader to connect students with Tacoma communities to learn from and with each other.

I was born in Las Vegas, NV to parents who immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan. Being a Muslim Woman, it is often a challenge to fit in. Sometimes, you are told things by your own people that break you, like, “You’re a Woman, you can’t be doing that.” Well, being as stubborn as I am, I did all of those things, that “I wasn’t supposed to do.” I played sports – including Judo and Track, joined many clubs, participated in science fairs, ran for class president, volunteered, and started working at age 16. At Green River College, I worked as a Biology Lab tech aid and a peer navigator in the Office of Diversity. But to be honest, I almost didn’t graduate high school. I was failing 3 classes, had 2 C’s and one B. If it wasn’t for running start, I don’t think I would have graduated. My running start teachers allowed me to find my true potential. My family pushed me to keep moving forward, and encouraged me to do the impossible. I am in the healthcare leadership program now and aspire to help those in countries that do not have adequate healthcare. Being the first in my family to go to college, everything is new to me. It is sometimes a hassle to find out what step comes next, but I am slowly working my way through.

James Christian Da is a first generation college student who identifies as a queer person of color studying social work and global honors at the University of Washington Tacoma. He is the co-founder of the first student-led, student-funded, and student-driven program on campus that specifically caters, supports, and celebrates first generation students (First Gen Fellows), while also serving and representing undeclared students in his capacity as an Undeclared Senator for the ASUWT Student Government. He is committed to educational growth and the overall advancement for all students of different backgrounds as he himself is the first individual in his family to attend a high-ranking university. He aims to become a social worker or serve in any capacity that advocates for those who are underrepresented and marginalized.

I am an Asian-American first generation college student studying Healthcare Leadership. I wasn’t sure if I could afford going to college. Both my parents attended college in the Philippines but they never completed a degree because of financial hardship. I’m very blessed and thankful for my parents shaping my character, and helping me realize what a privilege receiving an education is.

My career goal is to become a healthcare provider so that I may be able to help others in need. I plan on giving back to my community after completing my education by volunteering and interning at local hospitals and care management facilities. After that, I would like to work for an organization that provides healthcare resources to developing countries.

I am a first-generation Chamorro student and work at UW Tacoma Library and the Center for Equity & Inclusion where I develop events and workshops focused on Identity. I am very excited to study abroad in Italy with support from a Gilman International Scholarship in winter 2018. I will be participating in the “Creativity and Place: Seeing and Re-seeing Rome and Italy” program.

Being the first in my family to go to college was challenging. I didn't know what resources I had available to me. My parents immigrated here from Vietnam and had no experience with the American education system. I often kept to myself and tried not to be a bother to anyone. This resulted in me being an introvert. When I came to UW Tacoma I didn't know anyone. I kept to myself for two quarters before I told myself that I was tired of being alone all the time. I mustered up the strength to go check out a few RSO's on campus. This is where everything started to change. I started meeting more people and socializing more. My personality and habits took a 180 degree turn. I went from being antisocial and not knowing what I wanted to major in to the complete opposite.

I am now majoring in Information Technology and my goal is to educate everyone about the effects of e-waste on the environment. At my past internship they were tossing a semi-new phone when I asked if I could have it. They said yes, so I took it home and refurbished it, and it is now the phone I use. Any electronic contains elements that can be reused or chemicals that need to be properly disposed of. If everyone were to know about this, we could be more efficient about what we do with our e-waste and make reduce the amount of e-waste that we produce

As the daughter of a Chinese immigrant and a Vietnamese refugee, I am pursuing my dream of becoming a cyber-consultant with time, dedication, effort, and passion. The United States Department of Homeland Security states that 90 percent of security incidents are caused by poor software development. When my skills are well developed in the near future, I will provide my utmost abilities and effort to protect this nation from further cyberattacks.

I am a hardworking student regardless of any financial and academic difficulties I have faced. I have sacrificed a lot of time from leisure activities and focused on academics, school activities as well as volunteering. I was a concertmaster of orchestra from grade 5 to grade 12 and received state and solo awards in orchestra performances and competitions. I volunteered as a Study Zone tutor at the Kent Regional Library for 3 years and at Northwest Harvest to help provide food for those in need.

Kevin has a strong interest in the construction, environmental stewardship, and continued development of urban centers. As a Bonderman Fellow, he plans to explore urban environments throughout Southeast Asia, Turkey, as well as Southern and Eastern Europe. He hopes to return with new and exciting ideas about more sustainable approaches to urban planning and development.

The Bonderman Travel Fellowship provides $20,000 to fourteen UW students every year for eight months of solo travel to at least six different countries in two main world regions. 

Maps were Azad’s way of understanding and knowing the unfamiliar world around him, outside of his hometown in Boise, Idaho and his place of birth in Kurdistan. He has always been intrigued by them in any format, either on screen or on paper; the power they can hold is central to his motivation to obtain a master’s in geospatial technologies. Realizing he is part of this global world and that he somehow fits somewhere, he has always been adamant to take that next step outside of his comfort zone. His countries of choice reflect that statement: Peru, Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Israel, Lebanon, and Jordan.

The Bonderman Travel Fellowship provides $20,000 to fourteen UW students every year for eight months of solo travel to at least six different countries in two main world regions. 

He will be pursuing a Master’s Degree in Global Studies at Nanjing University.

While at UW Tacoma, Inte studied Mandarin and spent a full academic year in China. He participated in UW Tacoma’s summer study abroad program in China and also studied at Nanjing University through CIEE.

Inte is very skilled at learning foreign languages: he studied Japanese in high school, is proficient in Mandarin and is hoping to tackle Korean next. 

Chinese Government Scholarships provide funding for undergraduate and graduate study at Chinese universities. 

Korey, a veteran and Computer Science student, started his study of Mandarin while in the U.S. Army and has been interested in Chinese culture for a while. “When I found out about the CLS program I immediately started the application process. Although studying in China won’t contribute to my major, my hope is to earn a minor in Asian studies. I look forward to the opportunities and experiences that lay ahead!”

Last fall, Beleqsa studied abroad at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco as a 2015 Gilman Scholar; she will be continuing her Arabic study in Jordan this summer. As the oldest sibling and the first in her family to attend college, Beleqsa has spent a lot of time convincing her parents that studying abroad is worthwhile and of great benefit to her. As a result of her own experience, Beleqsa is motivated to provide access to higher education opportunities such as study abroad to her siblings and other youth.

On campus, Beleqsa worked in the Center for Service and Leadership as the Spring Breakaway Coordinator. Her 2015 spring service project focused on mentoring youth at the Willie Stewart Reengagement Center alongside other UW Tacoma students and staff volunteers. Huge congratulations!

Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, the Critical Language Scholarship provides fully funded overseas summer language institutes in fourteen foreign languages.

Fadumo will be participating in the 2018 CIEE Summer Korean Studies program in Seoul, South Korea. Longer bio forthcoming.

Shivani will be participating in the summer 2018 UW Urban Design and Planning United Kingdom: Sustainable Regional Development program. Longer bio forthcoming.

Tina will be participating in the summer 2018 UW Tacoma Ecuador: Spanish Language and Culture program. Longer bio forthcoming.

Vasika will be participating in the Seoul National University Exchange program in South Korea for the 2018-2019 academic year. Longer bio forthcoming.

I am a first-generation Chamorro student and work at UW Tacoma Library and the Center for Equity & Inclusion where I develop events and workshops focused on Identity. I am very excited to study abroad in Italy with support from a Gilman International Scholarship in winter 2018. I will be participating in the “Creativity and Place: Seeing and Re-seeing Rome and Italy” program.".

Arwa is honored to be studying in Brazil this summer with UW Tacoma Brazil: Movements and Intersections trip. She fell in love with South America during the summer 2016 when she had her first study abroad experience in Argentina. Less Going back to explore another region that is famous for the intersectionality of its people is exciting opportunity for Arwa. After the program, Arwa plans to visit the her high school to inspire students to attend college and study abroad.

April is a sophomore studying Business Administration at UW Tacoma. She will be learning and exploring in China with the UWT Past and Present program for Summer 2017. Coming from Chinese descent she is ecstatic to learn more about her background and study Chinese economics. Less In addition, April is involved on campus as a Student Leader. She works as the Student Activities Board Entertainment Coordinator and advocates for First-Generation student success through a task force. April is running for Student Body Director of Finance and is motivated to help promote Study Abroad through these roles when she returns.

Natalie is a transfer student from the South Puget Sound Community College and came to UWT largely in part due to the generosity of the Next Step Scholarship donors. She is a member of the Global Honors Program and a research assistant in the Behavioral Health Psychology lab on campus. Less This summer she will participate in the Brazil: Movements and Intersections program and has been drawn to Brazil because of their pioneering policy surrounding women's rights. Brazil has innovated women's police stations and Women's Rights Councils to help prevent and prosecute violent crimes against women; as well as realize women's rights as human rights. Creating a safer, more equitable world for women is something very important to Natalie. Natalie has also been awarded the Bamford Fellowship in Global Engagement; an undergraduate research opportunity in which she will be researching the intersections of rape, culture and policy within the United States and Brazil. She plans to pursue a career studying mental health disorders in order to innovate effective treatments, raise awareness, and relieve social stigma of those suffering with mental health disorders. With the privilege of education, she believes comes the duty to uphold marginalized voices. **Natalie also has been awarded the OGA Study Abroad Scholarship for 2017!

In addition to being a student, Najma works as a transfer peer advisor in our Office of Student Transition Programs. She will be studying abroad in Spain through UW Bothell’s Americans in Europe program. She looks forward to comparing questions of identity, diversity, and belonging between the U.S. and Spain.

Chelsea has a long-standing interest in Japan and studied abroad at Kyushu University in Japan in the summer of 2016. It was the music and animes of the Japanese TV show InuYasha that first drew her to the country. While at Tacoma Community College, Chelsea worked with Japanese exchange students and started learning the language. Chelsea also worked in UW Tacoma's Office of Student Transition Programs when she was a student.

Adriana is an incoming transfer student from Tacoma Community College (TCC). She plans to major in Communications and will be studying abroad in China (East to West China Study Abroad) this summer. At TCC, she was founder and president of the Scholarship Club that helped students identify and apply for scholarships and financial aid. 

In addition to being a student, Diliman served as a student senator, interned at Representative Derek Kilmer’s office, and has been raising awareness for Kurdish rights. He is also a student in our Global Honors Program. This past summer, he had the opportunity to study in China and is now looking forward to studying in Italy with a focus on European security. Academically, Diliman is most interested in international relations and human rights. He’s had a passion for politics since living in a refugee camp for seven years, after fleeing his home in Kurdistan. 

Aimee was excited to experience Japanese culture, study the language, try new foods and learn in a new country. 

Aimee has been interested in the Japanese language and culture for a long time: "My interest ... started in my childhood when my father and brother would have anime movie nights."

He was born in a small town in Missouri and joined the National Guard after graduating from high school. He is also a student assistant in the Office of Student Engagement. 

Growing up in a small town, he never really thought that he would have a chance to travel outside of the United States, especially to China: “Chinese culture and history [have] always fascinated me, and with such a rich culture I am very excited to have the chance to study and explore [the] country". His academic interests are in human rights, gender and sexuality, and he is planning to pursue a graduate degree in Gender Studies. 

Faith is a returning student; she built her first career in arts and other non-profits on only a high school education after she had to leave college for both familial and financial reasons. Faith is also UW Tacoma’s first ever Udall Scholar. 

She hoped to learn more about Moroccan culture and study Arabic, a long-term personal goal of hers. She was also looking forward to experiencing her religion in a majority Muslim country, outside of the private sphere.

As the oldest in her family and a first generation college student, it was difficult explaining to her parents what study abroad is and what its benefits are. For this reason, Beleqsa is motivated to provide access to higher education opportunities such as study abroad to her siblings and youth from her community in the future.

On campus, Beleqsa worked in the Center for Service and Leadership as the Spring Breakaway Coordinator. Her 2015 spring service project focused on mentoring youth at the Willie Stewart Reengagement Center alongside other UW Tacoma students and staff volunteers.

Melissa is a transfer student who has been away from college for 17 years. She first received a Physical Therapist Assistant A.A.S. degree in 1998. During her time away from school, she lived all over the U.S. and Europe and discovered that she had a deep passion for history and culture.

She is currently studying Asian History and minoring in Asian Studies and Education while being a single mom to two young boys and working whenever she's not studying or parenting. She plans to pursue a Master’s in either Education or Library and Information Science after graduation.

Sponsored by the Department of State, the Gilman is a merit-based study abroad scholarship for Pell grant recipients. In 2014, Christine Brubaker-Holland (Healthcare Leadership) and Tiffany Fox (Global Studies) received Gilman Scholarships to China.

As the first UW Tacoma student to receive this award, she will be developing and leading language classes at a Brazilian teachers college and representing the U.S. abroad as a citizen ambassador.

Lizeth is the first in her family to graduate from college, and she has gained valuable tutoring experience while working with a local community organization that supports the education of Latino children. Since graduating from UW Tacoma, she’s worked as a legislative aide at King County Council. 

Maksim is no stranger to international travel and language learning. He is proficient in Spanish, Russian, and Bulgarian, and studied abroad in St. Petersburg and Mexico as an undergraduate. He has family roots in Bulgaria and is now making the most of his Fulbright in Bulgaria: In addition to teaching at a secondary school, he started a speech and debate team that is competing all over the country, is coaching the school's basketball team, and started a language exchange cafe. Here's a brief video summarizing his first 100 days and pictures from his time in Bulgaria.

She will be spending a year in Kralanh, Cambodia and plans to work with a local NGO on a participatory research project: Her goal is to better understand how mobile app development can advance digital literacy in rural areas, and how Cambodian youth interact with technology. Huge congratulations to Sophie and to everyone who’s taught, inspired, and supported her during her time at UW Tacoma. Sophie served as ASUWT president from 2015-16.

The Fulbright U.S. Student Program awards funding for one academic year of self-designed study, research, creative projects, or teaching English in one of over 140 countries around the world. Eligible applicants are U.S. citizens who will have a bachelor's degree before the start of the grant, but not yet a PhD. 

Melanie is a first-generation college student who transferred to UW Tacoma from Highline College in 2015. Prior to UW Tacoma, she was a pastry chef in restaurants on the East Coast, in the Southwest, and right here in Washington. She has also worked in sales, customer service, and at the IT help desk for REI. She may not have realized it then, but these fast-paced, multi-cultural environments have prepared her well for her future role as a Foreign Affairs IT Specialist.

Melanie is also the proud mother of a daughter who’s attending college. With support of the FAIT Fellowship, Melanie will be pursuing a Master of Science in Information Management at the UW iSchool. Congratulations to Melanie, her academic unit, and her mentors!

I’ve been living in Washington all my life, and now that I’m graduating from the University of Washington Tacoma, I’m looking to experience the world. Since I was young, I’ve always been interested in visiting Japan and in becoming a Japanese-to-English translator and English teacher there. My goal is to immerse myself in the culture and language of Japan and become a cultural ambassador between Japan and the United States. This will be the first time I travel outside of the United States.

 

Chelsea is headed to Kyushu University in Japan this summer. It was the music and animes of the Japanese TV show InuYasha that first drew her to Japan. While at Tacoma Community College, Chelsea worked with Japanese exchange students and started learning the language. As a former student at an alternative high school, she hopes to inspire other students like her to study abroad after her return. Chelsea also works in our Office of Student Transition Programs.

The JET Program is a competitive opportunity that allows young professionals to work as Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) in public and private schools throughout Japan. The JET Program is sponsored by the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR), the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA), the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), and the Japanese Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC).

The Mary Gates Research Scholarship is an enormous honor, and it feels like a dream that I have actually been awarded it. This scholarship will help support my research in the Becker Lab on the DNA of bivalves (i.e. clams, oysters, and mussels) in Washington State.

For the past few years Becker Lab has been concentrating on a project tasked with counting and visually identifying bivalves in water samples collected around the state of Washington. Now that the visual identifications are complete, my research turns to analyzing the DNA of certain bivalves in order to get a better identification. My research will bring us one step closer to understanding the multitude of bivalve species living in the waters of Washington State.

Katherine Mijal is planning to enter the UWT K-8 ELL teaching program next year and hopes to become an elementary school teacher. She is currently doing research on intersectional oppression and the US healthcare system, with the aim of reducing the maternal mortality rate of Black women in the United States.

Devin will use the Mary Gates Scholarship to fund his research in privacy preserving screening of documents. He will contribute to the UWT PPML Lynx framework, an open source, privacy preserving machine learning framework, by developing the code to extract features from a text based document. By doing so, he will create the tools necessary for anyone to be able to screen documents for the existence of key words without revealing what the document contains or what the words are. Devin will use the SemEval 2019 hate speech data to detect hate speech in a privacy preserving manner but the code he will create can be used in many other practical applications such as spam, terrorism and depression detection.

Autumn will use the Mary Gates Research Scholarship to assess caregiver ethnic-racial socialization practices across the lifespan and how this socialization relates to current levels of critical consciousness, color-blind racial attitudes, and universality-diversity orientation in UWT students. This research uses data from a social justice issues study conducted by Dr. Rachel Hershberg and her Community Psychology Research Group in which Autumn is a research assistant. Inspiration for her study came from analyses of qualitative data in the first two waves of this study, which showed the need to improve cross-cultural relationships on campus and understand the formation of ideologies pertaining to race and diversity.

Sam will be using the Mary Gates Research Scholarship to facilitate research into what factors contribute to prompt an individual to engage in social justice actions. This research uses data from a social justice issues study conducted by Dr. Rachel Hershberg and her Community Psychology Research Group, in which Sam holds a lab manager position.

The Mary Gates Research Scholarship will take him to the British Columbia Provincial Archives to search for journals from Fort Nisqually. The journals were taken to Victoria in 1865, and misplaced. The information contained in the journals will offer valuable insight into the early development of the first non-native settlement on Puget Sound. As a local historian, who focuses on agricultural history, he is excited to uncover stories of early agriculture here on the shores of Puget Sound.

For a more complete bio, please see his 2015 Gilman Scholarship entry below.

The Mary Gates Research Scholarship is a competitive scholarship for undergraduate UW students who’re engaged in faculty-guided research, scholarly or creative work in any field.

Adán Espino Jr is a Washingtonian born and raised and has felt a passion for his community since high school. Studying for the Law & Policy degree with a minor in Economics, Adán has served as UW Tacoma's student lobbyist to advocate for State Need Grant funding, student loan reform, and investment into UW Tacoma. He is currently advocating alongside the university administration for two new engineering degree programs and a new academic building on campus.When he graduates, he hopes to continue fighting for his South Sound community and maybe even serve as an elected official.

 

The Mary Gates Leadership Scholarship encourages undergraduate students to develop their leadership abilities through practical experience, personal reflection and in community with mentors and peers.

Nicole is a first generation college student who found her love of international exchanges during her first study abroad in France & Italy during the summer of 2016. Nicole spent her last year at UW Tacoma actively involved in two psychological research teams and working as a Global Affairs Fellow, encouraging other students to experience the transforming power of international education. Upon her graduation in 2017, Nicole participated in an immersive language program in Santiago, Chile. Afterwards, she began a Master's program in Management at Seattle Pacific University. Now having graduated and enjoying the fruits of her academic labor, Nicole is eager for the next step of her journey in the Galicia region of Spain.