During Winter Quarter 2016, I took a norm challenging and thought provoking class, that caused me to question my career choices for the first time in my college career. I went from a Wall Street bound Investment Banker to a student with empathy, curiousity, and a desire to use my own privilege as an educated student to help others. Particularly I challenged myself to think deeply about poverty, racism, feminism, caregiving, and citizenship in Dr. Vicky Lawson’s Honors Seminar on Care, Poverty, and Citizenship. Throughout this quarter, I began to see my career path become ambiguous, allowing myself to ask questions about what I truly wanted to do- what would my legacy be? Unlike in previous experiences, this uncertainty and self-questioning was not a sign of weakness, and I took the ambiguity in my stride, and viewing it as point of reflection and not a cause for concern. I felt myself beginning to question her role in society as an educated, privileged, young citizen with a voice. I slowly realized that her unwavering (and somewhat random) goals to become an economist on Wall Street were preventing me from exploring ways in which I could play a substantial role in my community.
I was so exposed to niche communities that were unheard, oppressed, and underserved, reading incredibly eloquent and thought provoking pieces by bell hooks and others that called me to think about the discourse of homelessness and poverty. Just inside the small conference room in the honors suite, I was engaging herself with others, discussing the diverse communities within Seattle and the US, and realizing that my role as a student far exceeded her place on UW’s campus. I learned the power of the revolutionary Black Lives Matter campaign, that acted without a locus and touched on points of history that admittedly I thought the US had overcome. I learned how a $15 minimum wage could break the cycle of homelessness, drug abuse, and neglect, by giving parents the sustenance they needed to be present in their children’s lives. I learned the importance of being proud to be a feminist, and later exercised this by participating in the 2017 Women’s March in London, working part time for a by-women-for-women running company based in Seattle (Oiselle), and participating on the board of UW Women in Economics (along with being much more vocal about my position- especially with my younger brothers - and questioning previous norms of inequality that I had just taken as given). Most importantly I learned how to humbly and respectfully acknowledge my privilege as a white, educated citizen of the US. After Dr. Vicky Lawson asked myself and a few other students to attend the president’s speech on population health in South Lake Union in May 2016, I began to seek career paths that would allow me to commit herself to creating an inclusive community. Notably, this class inspired me to consider a PhD in development economics and also caused me to pursue a career path that would allow me help others, and not just make money. If it had not been for this class, I don't think I would have stumbled upon public economics with such an open mind as to what I defined as a fulfilling and successful career. Previously, Wall Street seemed like the be all and end all for any aspiring economist, but as I reflected on the lessons of empathy, voice, privilege, and care that I learned in Dr. Lawson's class, I became acutely aware that I had hinged success on finding a job on Wall Street. I began to rethink how fulfilling this life would be, with the knew knowledge about the injustices that underscore the lives of so many people who have been shorted by the structural hegemonies of our capitalist society. This 2 credit seminar changed my entire life.
Honors 230: Bias in the US Criminal Court System
I had always had a niggling interesting in law, one that I knew wasn't enough to make me go to Law School, but it was enough to make me excited about taking a course on the criminal justice system. Throughout the course, we were challenged to think about the institutionalized power dynamics that thread through the US Justice System. The course mostly focused on false imprisonment of innocent people, which I had never realized was a significant problem. After learning some of the reasons behind why these incarcerations were happening on such a large scale, I felt frustrated, angry, and disillusioned with the current state of the US government. Hearing stories about people who made false confessions due to the sheer pressure that they were under in the interrogation room, stories about people who were misidentified due to their race, stories about innocent people who were convinced to plead guilty just so that overburdened appointed prosecutors could sift through their intense caseload quickly left me feeling devastated. I was so interested in the class, and so passionate about the frustrations I felt towards the US Justice System, that the thought of going to Law School began to creep into my mind. Perhaps it was something I needed to do, seeing that I was able to talk on the issues adequately, and that I was able to write a really prolific term paper (see photo and file below). I worked extremely hard in the course, not just for a good grade, but because I was genuinely extremely interested in the material. It was the first writing class I had taken since returning back from the LSE, and the more relaxed structure, and scientific-like writing reminded me of why I liked writing in the first place. At the end of the class, I wrote in my reflection (see above) that I was considering law school because of the course, as it would give me an avenue to make a difference in the lives of people in marginalized communities. I feel that to change the law through policy, there is a need to understand the law.
Honors 395 A: Writing People, Writing Culture: Ethnography as a Way of Seeing
This was my last honors course that I had the pleasure of taking during my four years at UW. Due to the stress that I was feeling in my economics courses, I was eager to take a course that allowed me to pursue a passion for writing that I felt would give me a much needed workload balance. However, I didn't consider that my brain would hurt just as much as it did throughout this course. Although I had taken eye-opening courses about development, poverty, and writing before, this course encouraged me to think deeply about every interaction I had with people , observing why and how they happen and the deeper meaning behind them. I was developing an "Ethnographic mindset" where I was absorbing details from hours spent doing field work and observing people in social (or non social) situations. While the course was fascinating, for it allowed me to dig deeply into the lives of other humans, it was also frustrating. My professor insisted on not giving us grades for our writing assignments, and just feedback instead. Because of this, I never knew how good (or bad) my writing was, as I only read constructive criticism on my papers. I felt deeply concerned about how I was progressing through the course, for my focus has always been more on my grades than what I was actually learning. During numerous office hours spent talking to my professor, he informed me that he could tell that I had a lot of anxiety and nervousness surrounding my grades, and that throughout this course, I should hone in on just writing for passion, and writing out of interest, and not for a grade. I felt confused, for my entire college career had been about doing things for a grade. My professor even noted that I was addicted to achievement, which I believe is a very appropriate summation of the stress and anxiety I have felt towards my education since the fifth grade, when I experienced my first dose of real educational achievement. The course became more of a test for myself: could I really function under a system where I didn't receive a grade on every assignment? This came at a pivotal time for me at UW, for I was about to enter the real work of working where the feedback I would receive would come in a qualitative format, and not in a grade. Although this course was eye opening in terms of the subject matter, it was the professor's words of wisdom and challenge that gave me insight into who I was as a student. They changed my perspective on education, and what I wanted out of my last 10 weeks as an undergraduate. It was an important ending for me as a student of the UW Honors Program.