When Carol Miu was a girl, her father, Patrick Miu, instilled in her a love of physics. Later in life, she returned to that interest as an adult learner at 56�Թ��� Bothell. &�Բ�����;

A shared love of learning

Patrick Miu was a lifelong learner and a renaissance man. He was born and raised in Hong Kong before moving to New York as an international student, where he completed degrees in computer science and statistics at Stony Brook University. He stayed in the United States and worked as a software engineer for various banks before becoming a stay-at-home dad to his three children. 

“I had a copy of Newsweek that came in the mail in fall 1989. I kept that issue for years and years, because I thought Neptune was so beautiful.” 

“He got me into all sorts of stuff when I was a kid,” Carol Miu said. “He had me reading the Wall Street Journal — the whole thing — by the time I was 8 years old. He taught me about the stock market, advanced math, circuits and electronics.” 

Miu said she was even taught how to solder by her father, and with his guidance, she learned computer programming in BASIC, Java, and R. 

One of her father’s main interests was physics and trying to understand what was left to learn about the universe, she recalled. He was fascinated by the research of Albert Einstein and Stephen Hawking and shared his interest with his children. 

One memory that stands out to Miu is watching the science TV show NOVA on PBS in the late ’80s with her father. Together they learned about the Voyager 2 spacecraft and saw pictures of Neptune sent back through space. “I had a copy of Newsweek that came in the mail in fall 1989. I kept that issue for years and years, because I thought Neptune was so beautiful.”

A move away from science and back

A decade later, Carol Miu started college at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, still unsure of what path to follow. As part of the college’s requirements, all undergraduates had to take classes in physics. Despite doing well in those classes, Miu decided to pursue economics instead. At the time, Miu said, there was a lot of sexism in the hard sciences, and after being bullied by a teaching assistant, she believed the physics department wouldn’t be a welcoming place for her. 

After graduating from MIT, Miu pursued a career that included roles as a marketing lecturer, litigation consultant and product manager. This eventually led to her working for mobile games developer PeopleFun where she helped create the popular Wordscapes app.  

Then came a life-altering day in fall 2012 that Miu said she still remembers clearly: Her father had a brain aneurysm that left him physically and mentally impaired. The date — September  14 — continued to have significance for Miu as each year thereafter she and her father celebrated his survival. 

On that day in 2015, scientists detected gravitational waves in space at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory. By September of 2020, Miu was researching those same waves from LIGO.  

“I thought that was really significant because of the alignment of the dates.” Miu said. “One was a tragedy, and one was such an amazing scientific discovery exactly three years later. But also, he was the one who called it to my attention, and approximately five years after that I was doing computational physics to research that very phenomenon.

“Everything connected in a way that was harmonious.”

The winding journey to 56�Թ��� Bothell

Patrick Miu passed away in 2017, and when the COVID pandemic struck, Carol Miu was looking for a way to heal from his passing. She was stuck at home in Texas and missing her father. Learning physics seemed like the best way to honor him. 

She started with remote classes at a community college, but soon a friend, Jack Bayley (Physics ’20), introduced her to Joey Key, an associate professor at 56�Թ��� Bothell — and the connection made all the difference. 

Key told her: “No physics experience? No problem. No funding? No problem. Not enrolled? No problem. You can do data science. You can do Python programming. I’m going to put you in my gravitational wave research group!” 

By summer 2020, Miu had started working with Key and Ansel Neunzert on undergraduate research that would automatically flag line noise (narrow spectral artifacts) in LIGO data. Miu continued to work at PeopleFun, supporting the research in her spare time. Then in 2022, she was promoted to the firm’s CEO position.  

Miu said she enjoyed the challenge of running the company but wanted a change that would enable her to focus more on her own learning and growth. This led to her decision to resign from her position as CEO in 2023 to pursue physics full-time, moving across the country to enroll in 56�Թ��� Bothell’s Physics major. 

Physics research at 56�Թ��� Bothell

While pursuing her new undergraduate degree, Miu continued her computational research with Key and Neunzert. 

Key is “not only a trailblazer in gravitational wave astronomy,” Miu said, “but is the strongest advocate for students I have ever seen.” 

“[Joey Key] is not only a trailblazer in gravitational wave astronomy but is the strongest advocate for students I have ever seen.” 

And Neunzert, she said, is “the best science communicator I have ever met. They can think for 5 seconds and explain anything clearly. It’s really a gift.” 

Nearing the end of her degree work, Miu switched her research focus to electronics. She teamed up with fellow student Joey Del Gianni and lecturer Subramanian Ramachandran to design and build an open-source device that allows students to measure the speed of light. The speed of light lab kits are usually $10,000 each, Miu noted, but with their design science teachers can make their own version for under $200. 

Miu so appreciated Ramachandran’s mentorship that she nominated him for an Outstanding Undergraduate Research Mentor award, which he won in May 2025. As Miu recalled, he has the same experimental spirit that her father had. “I love his hands-on learning approach in which I was supposed to tinker and make mistakes while learning.”

An endowment for physics 

After graduating from 56�Թ��� Bothell in March 2025, Miu decided she wanted to give back to the University to honor her father’s love of physics and to show gratitude to the Division of Physics. She established the Miu Endowment for Physics in June 2025 in support of student education and research. 

When she wondered what her father would say about her getting a degree in physics, Miu said, “I think he’d be surprised and proud. I don’t think he would have predicted that I would have chosen this route or to honor him in this way. I think he would have had a very good, long, proud laugh over it.” 

Miu said that for her part she wants “to stuff as many lives as I can into this one life” and hopes to go to culinary school next — even while she keeps physics close to her heart. She has already passed on her love of science to her 10-year-old daughter who wants to be a “space chef” when she grows up. 

She said she also knows that, in her many “lives” still to come, 56�Թ��� Bothell will play a big part.  

“I think 56�Թ��� Bothell is just a part of my life forever now. I’m really feeling that sense of belonging here. I feel like we’re family.”

Support 56�Թ��� Bothell students as they research our universe by  &�Բ�����;

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One might describe me as a “Jill of all trades and a master of none” — well except for that I did just graduate with my MBA from 56�Թ��� Bothell last month. I suppose that does make me a Master of Business Administration at least.

Why have I bounced around so much?

You’ll perhaps understand when I tell you I was married at 19. By the age of 24, I had four biological children all under four years old. By 32, we had adopted three more children through foster care. That’s a grand total of seven children — all under eight years old.

When you have that many children, they become your entire focus in life, and I would do anything for them, including working crazy jobs at all times of the day. And for a while, I lost myself in the middle of it.

There’s more to the story. 

For around 17 years, during that time, I was also in an abusive marriage. The kind of abuse that deteriorates your mind, leaving you constantly second guessing yourself and your reality. Once I found the courage to escape, I left for good. But afterwards, I was in survival mode. I spent the next few years just keeping my family together and barely putting food on the table.

Once my marriage was behind me, for the first time I had room to breathe. I began setting myself as a priority, and I started thinking about my future. I can definitively say that choosing to do an MBA at 56�Թ��� Bothell was one of the first decisions I had ever made for my own benefit as an adult.

I wanted to invest in myself to gain the skills and tools I needed to become a good leader. One benefit of having as many jobs as I have — you really see the contrast between having a good leader versus a bad one! It makes such a difference.

As I have been reflecting on my journey through the MBA program, I am only beginning to realize the powerful impact it has had on my life. I can tell you this with certainty: The more I learned, the more empowered I felt. It has strengthened me.

But, even then, there were still challenges along the way.

Doing an MBA is tough for anyone. Most of my cohort were working full-time while taking classes at night, and I was no exception. I was also caring for my children, along with a friend with dementia who I took into my home during the program.

Navigating all of that was tough, but many things at 56�Թ��� Bothell helped. I’d like to tell you about two of them.

The first was Dr. Sophie Leroy, professor and now dean in the School of Business.

Sophie is a person who walks into the classroom and has this radiant light about her. She talks to you like she has all the time in the world for you, and through her mentorship, she has inspired me to become a better person. She makes every student feel like they’re important and capable — including me. In short, Sophie is the real deal, and I aspire to one day be a leader like her.

Sophie was also instrumental in the second thing that kept me going. She encouraged me to apply for a scholarship created by Laura Metz, another alumna of 56�Թ��� Bothell.

The scholarship was awarded to me at a time when I was starting to doubt that I could finish the MBA program. I was having trouble balancing life and school, and I was losing focus on my studies.

The scholarship helped financially, but its impact went far deeper. It affirmed for me that I was where I needed to be. It was a catalyst for me to continue the program.

Having someone wanting to invest in me and believing in me made all the difference. It added to my sense of worth and solidified a certainty within me that I hope to pay forward one day. For that, I’m so thankful to Laura for creating her scholarship.

Through the MBA program, I learned how to be an effective leader, but I also gained confidence in myself. When I was with my ex-husband, I was psychologically beaten down so often that it filled me with self-doubt. Now I’m confident enough to say “yes” to myself, and I can see a future where I can choose who I want to be and what I want to do.

So, what’s next?

I recently married a wonderful, kind man. I have inherited two more lovely children and a grandbaby. My youngest children are just a few years away from graduating high school, my middle children are starting their own business, and one is going back to college for nursing. My eldest children have already graduated: one from Arizona State and two from 56�Թ��� Bothell. Go Dawgs!

They’re already pursuing their dreams. Soon it will be time I pursued my own.

I have a dream of owning my own business, of curating leaders and applying all that I have learned within my business. I want to nourish the souls of others by providing services that help them celebrate their life achievements and milestones.

One day in the future, I also hope I can come back to 56�Թ��� Bothell to teach. I want to build up and encourage others, the way I have been built up and encouraged by so many.

This story was an abridged version of Hunter’s speech at the 2025 Recognition Reception, where Laura Metz won the 2025 56�Թ��� Bothell Legacy Award.

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But for three East African students at the 56�Թ���, their morning brew is more than a simple caffeine delivery device. It’s also a drink central to their communities. That’s why when they wanted to create a student club, they decided to dedicate it to drinking coffee. 

A common journey to 56�Թ��� Bothell

BunaTalk (or “coffee talk”) is a student club created by students Koket Gebiremichael, Yabsera Legesse and Eskndr Tadesse.

The three co-presidents share common stories when it comes to their early lives. Each of them immigrated to Washington at a young age. For Yabsera Legesse’s family, the motivation for his parents to emigrate from Ethiopia was to give him and his siblings a better life. “They realized that for us, there’s wasn’t going to be a lot of opportunities for us to succeed [in Ethiopia],” Legesse said. “Even if we went to school and college, life was never going to be that good for us.”

When each of the now co-presidents arrived in the United States, they found it hard to relate to others at school. Rather, they found connection in their local East African community. Their families connected with other families — often over cups of coffee.

After high school, when the three students were deciding on where to go to university, 56�Թ��� Bothell was a top choice as they wanted to stay close to their families. “That’s a big theme within East African communities,” said Gebiremichael, also from Ethiopia. “Our family is the top priority for us, and so being away from them isn’t always easy.”

When the three students arrived on campus, they realized there were many other East African students — but there was no easy way for all those students to connect. Their student club, BunaTalk, was the answer.

A cup of buna in the morning

The history of coffee goes back thousands of years to the Oromo people of East Africa who first cultivated the coffee bean. One popular legend says coffee was discovered by a shepherd who noticed his goats getting a jolt of energy when they munched beans from a specific bush. This led to the shepherd trying the beans himself and then passing his discovery to local monks who chewed coffee to keep them awake during prayers. Over time, the chewing of beans evolved into the ceremonial brewing of coffee.

In modern times, drinking coffee is central to “Habesha” communities, a term broadly used to describe people of Ethiopian and Eritrean heritage. Tadesse, from Eritrea, is quick to point out the differences in coffee culture between East Africa and the U.S.

“In Western culture, coffee is just a pick-it-up-and-go in the morning thing. It’s something you do for five minutes,” he explained. “But coffee in East African culture is a whole ceremony. When the coffee usually comes out, you know you’re going to be staying there for a while, for conversations about culture, politics and social norms.”

Tadesse explained that in a traditional coffee ceremony, it can take two to three hours to prepare the coffee. Families roast their own coffee beans, grind the beans by hand and each person takes a turn smelling the coffee. Coffee is a way for East African families to connect with the larger community.

Tadesse says, “It’s where people come together to talk about anything and everything,” he said.

Habesha buna conversations

One of Legesse’s earliest memories of the coffee tradition was speaking with his father about their extended family. His father explained how his grandfather had grown up in the mountain regions of Ethiopia and had worked hard to go to law school to become a paralegal. Legesse said those conversations inspired him to major in Law, Economics & Public Policy and eventually to become an attorney.

An important conversation that Tadesse had over coffee was around what to do after high school. His extended family gathered over the Christmas holiday, and at the time Tadesse had a hard time deciding whether to go to a community college or a university. When the topic came up during buna, the family laid out the pros and cons of the decision, and his cousins shared their experiences of going to college.

“When you have a coffee at hand, that’s when it’s your time to speak, almost like you’re given a mic,” Tadesse said. “And my cousin was talking about college and what her experiences were like. That’s one of the main things that helped me decide what path to take.”

And one of the reasons the BunaTalk club co-presidents said they came to 56�Թ��� Bothell is that they knew the University had a large group of Habesha students.

Creating a community for East African students

When they spoke about how hard it was to connect with that community, the three agreed they wanted to create a space where they could share their culture with other students.

Gebiremichael noted that she wanted a place where people could have the same meaningful conversations that her parents and grandparents were having over coffee.

For Legesse, a priority was simply to have a space for people to meet and get to know each other. “Being Habesha is very social, and not having a social space where people could talk to each other and be among people from their own countries and culture was hard,” he said.

“Especially in high school, I didn’t see a lot of Habeshas, and it always felt like I was alone,” he added. “I wanted to create a community where people don’t feel like that. If they need to talk to someone, they have people who look like them, who can welcome them and understand where they come from.”

When the group realized there was a need for a more community, they decided to make it happen. They started with an event where people could meet in a classroom to enjoy food and drinks.

BunaTalk’s first year of connection

Planning that first event, the three club co-presidents were afraid nobody would turn up. But when the day came, more than 100 students arrived, and they realized there was a real thirst for buna — and all it means — at 56�Թ��� Bothell.

In the club’s first year, BunaTalk held six events, including a volunteer day, a traditional coffee ceremony, a game night, a friendship mixer and a basketball tournament. For this successful first year, the club recently received the Rising Star Award during 56�Թ��� Bothell’s annual Club Council Recognition Banquet.

Despite some big ideas for next year and new members of leadership, the group said they won’t forget what brought them together to begin with: a cup of coffee.

As Tadesse explained, “There’s no community without buna.”

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When alumna Claire Truongdang, Biochemistry ’24, started at 56�Թ��� Bothell, she wasn’t sure what to expect from college.

Having moved from Vietnam years earlier, she and her family were unfamiliar with the application process. With help from someone at her high school, she applied to 56�Թ��� Bothell because it was close to home and easy for her family to access.

Once at 56�Թ��� Bothell, she started in psychology but changed course after her mother faced serious health issues. “I just wanted to understand what she was going through,” Truongdang said.

It was then a chemistry course with Dr. Brandon Finley that sparked a new passion. “He changed my life,” she said. “He made me want to spend my whole day thinking about chemistry.”

With his encouragement, she switched to biochemistry and found a new direction in college and in a career.

Doors to research and opportunity

Through 56�Թ��� Bothell, Truongdang gained access to resources across the University of Washington. She joined the Maternal-Fetal Research Lab at 56�Թ��� Medicine, mentored by Dr. Stephen McCartney and Dr. Raj Shree, where she studied how pregnancy may unlock new insights into diseases like cancer and knowledge about human parturition mechanisms.

“Pregnancy is often seen as an invasion — like a tumor — but the body tolerates it,” she said. “Understanding that could help us find cures.”

Even after graduation, she has continued research with Dr. McCartney and Dr. Shree, exploring her interest in both science and social impact, especially in reproductive health care. “Pregnancy research is so underexplored,” she said. “It’s more than just uteruses, vulvas and vaginas. It can teach us about cancer, cardiovascular disease and more.”

While her lab work as a student took place at the 56�Թ��� in Seattle, Truongdang said the foundation she built at 56�Թ��� Bothell was essential. “Our campus feels small, but it opens doors across the 56�Թ���,” she said.

She credited Dr. Finley for inspiring her academic shift, Dr. Marc Servetnick for helping her secure research funding from the Associated Students of the 56�Թ��� Bothell and Dr. Brian White for connecting underrepresented students (including her sister) to internship opportunities at 56�Թ��� Medicine and other labs in Seattle.

Support that shaped her future

Now working full time in the 56�Թ��� Medicine lab while preparing to apply to M.D.-Ph.D. programs, Truongdang said she hopes eventually to lead her own lab, advance research that improves lives and support patients through complex health decisions just like her current mentors.

In addition to the support of faculty, this path was made possible through financial support, including the 56�Թ��� Bothell Alumni Endowed Scholarship and the Worthington Scholarship.

When her mother was laid off, the extra support helped her continue her studies. “That summer, those scholarships reduced the financial burden on our family’s budget by not having the added expenses of school.”

To the alumni who fund scholarships through efforts like the 56�Թ��� Bothell Husky 5K, Truongdang offered heartfelt thanks. “It’s not about big, flashy gifts,” she said. “It’s about giving back to the communities we came from. That kind of awareness is the highest level of giving.”

Despite the challenges, Truongdang found her voice — and it is clear, focused and grounded in purpose.

Like Claire, every student has a story full of potential, challenges and discovery. Giving to 56�Թ��� Bothell helps unlock opportunities for students to find their path and pursue their future with confidence.

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56�Թ��� Bothell lecturer Joe Decuir, a computing industry veteran, is helping future engineers through a generous gift supporting students in engineering and computing. With decades of experience in computer engineering and video game technology, Decuir’s contributions inside and outside the classroom are shaping the next generation of innovators.
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