The Husky Experience Student Advisory Council (HESAC) has been developing the Husky Seed Fund, an award created by students for students to bring to life innovative ideas that are inclusive, impactful, and practical to the UW. As a pilot program, we welcomed all students from the Seattle campus to submit their ideas. We are proud to recognize two of the Husky Seed Fund winners as students who have been involved with First Year Programs!

The winners include Lauren Mittelman, senior in Public Health, Aleenah Ansaari, sophomore in Biochemistry and Cristian Ovadiuc, senior in Microbiology. Lauren and Aleenah’s project is The Vulnerability Collective, which gathers and honors 100 stories of students’ personal experiences of vulnerability and growth and will be presented at an open campus reading event as well as collected in printed copies of the stories. Cristian’s Undergraduate Research Journal aims to bolster undergraduate research by providing a social and interactive peer-review publishing platform that is open to all schools from the UW.

Lauren and Aleenah have worked with FYP in different capacities in their time at UW. Lauren served as an Orientation Leader over the summer of 2016, welcoming in over 8000 first year and transfer students! Aleenah is a FIG Leader this Autumn 2016 quarter. Her class will help a small group of first year students transition into life at UW and in the Seattle area!

Stay tuned over the following year to see the launch and impact of these inspiring projects, and keep an eye out for next year’s application to the Husky Seed Fund as well as to the Husky Experience Student Advisory Council. Visit www.washington.edu/strategicplanning/husky-seed-fund/ to learn more. Congratulations to the winners and thank you Lauren and Aleenah for your involvement with FYP!