Im not sure what exactly I thought college was going to be, but the last three years

definitely havent gone as expected. I didnt expect to become best friends and roommates with
the first person I befriended on a study abroad program my freshman year, to switch majors five
times in the first four months of college, to intern with three really great companies, to co-found
two student organizations my last year of college, or to present to the Board of Regents. At the
same time, I didnt expect to go to therapy, to move four times in as many weeks, or to wait three
months to read 550 pages of public records (Im now up to 3900 pages over five months, so I
guess thats progress?). As a whole, though, Ive really loved college, and even the more difficult
parts of my time at UW have taught me a lot and helped me grow as a person.
CEP has definitely made me a different and better person, but Id be remiss to call CEP
the defining feature of the last three years. My volunteer work, internships, time spent at the
Newman Center, fellowship, non-CEP classes, and co-founding of UWs Supplier Diversity
Program and Interfaith Board have all significantly changed me, too. The people Ive met
through these different experiences are incredible -- they have such a variety of backgrounds,
motivations, and goals, and I love just having the opportunity to listen to them talk about their
interests and life stories. So many of the people Ive met have helped me in ways I cannot even
begin to repay, both by supporting me and by calling me out when I can do better.
CEP has overall been a good experience for me, but sometimes I do wish I had met
everyone earlier in my college experience or that classes were smaller, because I know this is
one community in which I could have contributed a lot more than I did, and I think Ill always
regret that a little bit. Thats not to say I didnt do anything good for the major -- Ive thought
more about core competencies and amendment process than probably any other student
graduating this year, and I always came to class, did readings, and took ownership over the parts
of group projects I was tasked with finishing. Still, its no secret Im quieter in class than all but
a handful of my classmates, and while I would argue that, as someone who has benefitted from a
good deal of privilege, I should listen way more than I should speak, I know I sometimes use that
as an excuse to avoid arguments or attention. Outside CEP (and in smaller groups within CEP),
Im not that quiet. Being the center of attention is never appealing to me, but Ill make jokes and
share my opinions in groups of fifty people with far less hesitation than I do in CEP. Again, I
think this is my fault, not the fault of the program or those in it. By the time I started CEP, I was
already over-committed to other groups and afraid of going to events where I didnt have anyone
to lean on as a social crutch. There are a decent number of introverts in CEP, but there are
definitely more extroverts, and everyone seemed to become close and comfortable in the first
quarter while I was still trying to figure out what I was doing here. I didnt really try to become
super close with people in CEP, and it took me a long time to realize thats okay. There are a lot
of really great people in this program, and Im so excited to see what everyone accomplishes,
and I know that because of how I prioritized my time in college that the main way Im going to
hear about what theyre doing is through LinkedIn and Facebook. Maybe some of us will end up
working together, and we can take turns facilitating or make jokes about core classes and senior
projects. Even if I didnt become good friends with a lot of people in this program, Ive still
learned a lot from their worldviews and plans, which are frequently very different than mine.
One of the main reasons I moved to Seattle was to learn more about people who had very
different ways of seeing the world than I do, and CEP was definitely a good way for me to meet
and work with a lot of diverse-minded people for a considerable amount of time.
As far as classes go, I definitely loved CEP 301 and 461 the most. I always wanted to
take philosophy classes but didnt have space in my first year of classes at UW because I kept
switching majors and minors, so having two philosophy classes built into our curriculum was
perfect for me. It was really interesting to see how logical people can still reach such vastly
different conclusions, and thats definitely something I want to keep in mind as I continue on in
the world. Our planning-focused classes were really helpful, too, albeit largely to show me that
urban planning is not the field I want to pursue after graduation. Knowing basic planning
concepts is helpful for any work context and general civic awareness and participation, though,
and gave me experience working in group projects for a client, which is definitely something I
need to be accustomed to when I start working full-time. Methods credits were also really
informative for me. I chose to focus my methods credits on studying different identities and
locations than the ones with which I grew up. This led me to take classes on War and Peace,
black literary genres, Serbo-Croatian, and the education systems in various countries, among
other courses. My upbringing did not allow me a lot of opportunities to learn about people who
were different from me, so I loved having the chance to do so as part of CEP.
Extracurricular activities allowed me to learn more about different perspectives, too.
Volunteering at ROOTS Young Adult Shelter for the last three years has given me a much better
idea of the complexities of homelessness, as well as introduced me to a couple of my closest
friends. Each of my internships have helped me better understand what I want type of work suits
me, which is something Im really glad I have more insight on now before I accept a full-time
job offer.
The three other student organizations I have heavily invested time into are the UW
Supplier Diversity Program, Interfaith Board, and Newman Center. Prior to this year, I didnt
know a lot about supplier diversity, but when given the opportunity to be on the executive team
for a new club at UW, my overcommitted self took the opportunity anyway. Working with
people who have a very business school-oriented mindset has been really interesting and teaches
me about how differently people across campus -- which, in some ways, is a microcosm of the
future workforce -- approach problems and what they see as viable ideas and solutions. The work
our program has accomplished in the first year is honestly pretty unbelievable, and Im glad I
took the opportunity to be involved with a group that could have a long-term impact on UW and
the businesses who supply products and services to this campus.
The Interfaith Board was in some ways the culmination of much of what I hoped to do
when I moved to Seattle and began attending college. At my high school, we took a class that
was designed to teach students about different religions core beliefs and histories. This class,
which I felt could have been structured as an exploration into how different religions came to be
and what makes people feel strongly about those worldviews, was mostly just my teacher telling
us the basic background of each religion and then why it conflicted with Catholicism and, as a
result, was wrong. That class had a lasting impression on me because it was the exact opposite of
what I think discussions about religion should be. There is so much conflict in this world because
people believe their worldviews cannot coexist, and I wanted to have the opportunity to push
against that mentality. In college, I sat in on a class on major eastern religions, attended several
Shabbat services, and went to a couple interfaith dinners. These events gave me the chance to
talk with people who held different religious beliefs than I did. One night I particularly enjoy
reminiscing about is when I went to an interfaith Shabbat at Hillel and then played ping pong at
the Mormon Institute of Religion with two Jewish men and a Mormon woman. That Mormon
woman, Elizabeth, later reached out to me to see if I was interested in helping form an official
interfaith student organization at UW. Prior to the Interfaith Board, various religious student
groups organized interfaith events, and the Interfaith Board builds on that work and creates more
opportunities for religious dialogue to happen on and near campus. We put on our first official
event, Ask a ____, this quarter. It provided anyone interested in learning about different religions
the opportunity to ask questions of people with different faith backgrounds. Between
representing a Catholic students experience and having dinner with people prior to the panel, I
was able to engage in a lot of conversations about Mormonism, Judaism, and Islam. Everyone
Ive interacted with at these interfaith events is really respectful and clearly attend the events
from a place of curiosity, not with the intent to evangelize. Talking with people at these events
and even in Interfaith Board meetings has been so valuable to me. I think religions are really
beautiful and love hearing about how different peoples faith experiences affect their lives.
My own faith experience also profoundly affected my life while I was in college. The
Newman Center is a community I honestly do not think I could talk about enough. Newman was
one of the first places I became involved at once I moved to Seattle, and I know that having one
place where I knew I was always welcome and could find people with shared beliefs helped me
feel comfortable enough to grow into myself over the course of the last three years. Over the
three years I attended UW, I participated in and then led Newmans freshman group, led its
womens ministry program, organized its weekly undergraduate nights, and attended dozens of
retreats and other events that Newman organized. In some way, pretty much every person I have
met over the last three years has inspired me, but many of the people who had the greatest effect
on me were people I met at the Newman Center. Tobias, my friend and fellow freshman group
leader, was instrumental in teaching me that I should not fear being vulnerable and that
confidence is important and life-changing. We definitely did not always agree and continue to
see the world in pretty different ways, but Tobias and I learned a lot from working and having
extensive discussions together. Derek Dragseth, who I convinced to join CEP, was also someone
I met at the Newman Center. Derek and I met the first week of freshman year, and since then he
has consistently been one of my closest friends. Derek is such a giving and thoughtful person,
and he supported me both when we did ministry together (he was a freshman group leader at the
same time Tobias and I were) and even now, at a time when he has to spend about thirty hours a
week running the Newman Center as a Peer Minister. He prioritizes and supports his friends to a
pretty incredible degree, and I know I and many others have benefitted from his commitment to
peoples well-being.
Another friend whos inspired me is my friend and former roommate Emily. Emily and I
see a lot of aspects of the world differently -- shes an agnostic engineering major from Northern
California, and Im a devout Catholic Kansan who chose a very interdisciplinary major and
minor. The year I lived with Emily was a very trying year for me in a lot of ways (none of which
were her fault) that ultimately caused me to improve as a person, and I was not always the easiest
person to be friends with while I was grappling with those changes and seriously struggling with
my mental health for the first time. Emily was always -- and continues to be -- incredibly
supportive, kind, and patient with me while also being honest and telling me when I need to
acknowledge and work to address problems Im facing. Her support is what finally gave me the
willpower and courage to go to a counselor, which was an experience I really needed to have. I
spent fourteen years pretending that I didnt need to process and reflect on the long-term effects
my parents divorce had on me, and seeing a counselor last spring quarter allowed me to work
through my emotions and become more comfortable talking about that part of my life, which
prior to that point I tried to avoid talking about altogether.
People I met through CEP have also been really influential to me, particularly Alison
Turner, Melissa Torres, and Megan Herzog. Everyone goes through periods of self-doubt in
college -- and for the rest of their lives, Ive been assured -- but I think that self-doubt is
particularly acute for traditional students who started college right after high school. Alison
and Melissa both spent a fair amount of time in the workforce before deciding to pursue
Bachelors degrees, and hearing about their experiences has been tremendously helpful for me.
Career paths are often very nonlinear, but that isnt always information I remember when Im
stressing out looking through job search websites. Alison and Melissa have always been really
patient and kind in finding ways to calm me down and remind me that my first job and life
choices after college do not necessarily dictate how the rest of my life will go. Megan has also
given incredibly helpful advice about life after graduation. Most of the advice I have found
helpful should be obvious (and might be to others), but has felt profound to me. A good example
of this is that there is no supposed to. After college -- and even while Im in college for the
next few days -- I get to decide what to do with my life. As someone whos spent the last twenty
years mostly just doing what Im supposed to do, this was kind of life-changing to hear. As
long as I can afford to go somewhere or pursue a specific interest, I can. I have full say over what
I choose to do. Thats all still a little mind-boggling for me, but also incredibly exciting, and Im
grateful to Melissa, Alison, Megan, and everyone else in CEP for consistently showing there are
an infinite number of ways to live and pursue happiness.
 College has been a lot of happiness and struggle and growth. Ive enjoyed the three years
Ive lived in Seattle so much, and I have so many people and opportunities to thank for that.
Although Im nervous about transitioning into full-time work, Im excited to see how life will
change and what new experiences Ill have, both in my first job out of school and long-term. My
friends, classmates, co-workers, and UW faculty and staff have been so incredibly generous to
me, and I can only hope that my work will enable others to benefit people even a fraction of the
amount Ive been helped by everyone I have spent time with in the last three years. CEPs
facilitated a lot of that, so I hope that anyone associated with that program who reads this knows
that Im grateful for your work, too.