When alumna Claire Truongdang, Biochemistry ���24, started at 56勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 Bothell because it was close to home and easy for her family to access.

Once at 56勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 Bothell, Truongdang gained access to resources across the University of Washington. She joined the Maternal-Fetal Research Lab at 56勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 in Seattle, Truongdang said the foundation she built at 56勛圖厙 Bothell was essential. ���Our campus feels small, but it opens doors across the 56勛圖厙,��� 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勛圖厙 Bothell and Dr. Brian White for connecting underrepresented students (including her sister) to internship opportunities at 56勛圖厙 Medicine and other labs in Seattle.

Support that shaped her future

Now working full time in the 56勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 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勛圖厙 Bothell helps unlock opportunities for students to find their path and pursue their future with confidence.

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56勛圖厙 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.
Read the full story on 56勛圖厙 Bothell News

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Leonille Matunan, a senior in Computer Science & Software Engineering and director of budget and finance for AS56勛圖厙B, said he knows from personal experience why the group chose to focus on wellness for this annual gift. 

The stresses of college 

This year���s senior class started college in a high-stress environment amidst the COVID pandemic, on top of the many stressors that college is already filled with, Matunan said. From balancing assignments with part-time jobs to making time for extracurricular activities, he said that many of his peers are so busy they don���t have time to look after themselves.  

The most stressful time of each quarter, Matunan said, is during mid-terms and finals ��� weeks when students are focusing on getting the best grades possible. 

���I think a lot of people get really nervous,��� he said. ���I want to get a job. I want to be an adult who is working and making money. And I think that���s stressful for some people, even for myself, when I think, ���If I mess up, am I not going to get a job later? Am I going to be a failure?��� It’s just everything stacking up against you. It gets very stressful.��� 

Two of the ways Matunan has helped to manage his wellness during college is through building a strong community and reaching out for counseling support. 

Finding community  

In his junior year, Matunan created a karaoke club for his friends, noting that having fun together was beneficial for their mental health.  

���All we did was sing for two hours every other week,��� he said. ���A lot of the time, we would get around 50 to 60 people, and a lot of people loved it. I thought it was a good way to de-stress after class. You hang out with new people, and you sing together.��� His go-to karaoke songs? Power ballads from Adele and Whitney Houston. 

This year, Matunan joined another club called the Filipino American Student Association where Filipino students meet to celebrate cultural events and have fun. During a recent FASA event, he used his karaoke skills to regale the crowd. The event was having technical difficulties, so to keep the crowd entertained Matunan, the emcee, broke into spontaneous song. He sang ���Bakit Nga Ba Mahal Kita,��� a Filipino song that translates to ���Why do I love you?��� 

[Video – Bakit Nga Ba Mahal Kita] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ir_iuXFNEg 

As a member of FASA, Matunan has joined a support network and has made many lasting memories. ���I wouldn’t trade it for anything,��� he said. ���Just because of the number of people I’ve met, the friendships I���ve made and the fun we’ve had.��� 

Reaching out to 56勛圖厙 Bothell Counseling Center 

While Matunan values the support of his peers, he is open about reaching out to professionals when he needs more help. When he was going through some personal challenges along with stress around deciding to switch majors, for example, he contacted 56勛圖厙 Bothell���s Counseling Center. He said he had no qualms asking for help as his family members, many of whom work in health care, have always encouraged him to get help when needed. 

Matunan said he understands there can be some anxiety about going to see a counselor. ���I feel like telling students that it’s okay,��� he said. ���We’re not robots. We’re all humans. We’re going to go through things. And it’s okay that we’re sad or we’re mad or we feel all these emotions. I think it’s important for students to take a step back and realize they’re not alone.��� 

Meeting with a counselor helped Matunan gain perspective on his problems, and the therapist encouraged him to broaden his interests, including applying to be a member of AS56勛圖厙B. 

���It helped me appreciate life a little more,��� he said. ���She just gave me some great insight that my problems weren���t the end of the world. She told me to be patient and to forgive myself.��� 

Giving back for wellness 

When asked why students should donate to the Senior Class Gift, Matunan emphasized that giving in this way is a direct gift to fellow students and the entire 56勛圖厙 Bothell community. 

���I think most people want to leave an impact before they leave somewhere,��� he said. ���That’s what I want. I want to leave an impact ��� even if it’s just a small amount. If everyone gives back, a lot more students can benefit from it. 

���You���ll get to help out so many students that you probably would never meet,��� he said, ���and I feel like it’s just one of those good feelings. You can think, ���I did something before I left. I was able to support students and my peers.������ 

You can support students and your peers now by giving to the 2024 Senior Class Gift by . All gifts this year go toward the Mental Health and Wellness Fund. 

If you���re a 56勛圖厙 Bothell student interested in support, contact the Counseling Center. 

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Members of the School of Business community were at the center of the lively fundraiser. Albert Jalso of Russell Investments emceed and chaired the event. Karishma Sharma who graduated with a Business Administration degree in 2016 was the keynote speaker. Angelina Ly, who will graduate with the same degree in June 2024, was the featured student speaker.  

Interim Dean Rajib Sanyal spoke about the great impact of the School of Business and recognized the many members of the faculty in attendance. The bidding on various auction items during the event was competitive, but all in good fun for a great cause.  

Building a business community 

Sharma spoke to all those gathered about how her time at 56勛圖厙 Bothell helped her grow in confidence and find a community. ���I went from feeling I wasn���t good enough,��� she said, ���to feeling that I could take on the world.��� 

���This wasn���t just about my grades. This wasn���t just about school. My time at 56勛圖厙 Bothell changed the way I viewed myself,��� Sharma said. ���Once I graduated in 2016, I found I already had a ton of business experience and a supportive network. 56勛圖厙 Bothell had become my village.��� 

Her 56勛圖厙 Bothell village helped start her career at Microsoft where she now works as a professional storyteller and writer. After working on an initiative called AI for Earth, during which Sharma gave a presentation to CEO Satya Nadella, she was inspired to start Washington���s first along with her brother. Her interest in farming can be traced back to her time at 56勛圖厙 Bothell, where she remembers snipping kale from the gardens, along with her family history of heritage farming in the Punjab, India. 

To finish her keynote speech, Sharma shared her experiences as a mentor in the School of Business���s Mentorship EDGE program. ���Talking to my mentees, I see that 56勛圖厙 Bothell has prepared these students to take on the world as it is today,��� she said. ���These students are smart, driven, and will one day be sitting in this room as you all are ��� as the leaders of their respective industries.��� 

One of those students is Angelina Ly. 

Growing as an entrepreneur泭

Ly says that at 56勛圖厙 Bothell, she gained new skills that applied to her business, . Before enrolling at 56勛圖厙 Bothell, Ly was already a successful entrepreneur. She started selling slime as a 14-year-old where she used her creativity to create different styles of slime which she showcased on social media. She was self-taught, learning every aspect of running a business by herself, but she also knew she would benefit from being surrounded by people who could help her gain more business skills. 

���Coming from a family that had to navigate the challenges of immigrating from Vietnam, pursuing entrepreneurship or even business wasn’t a familiar path, so there were many times when I felt as though I was on my own,��� Ly said. ���That’s why when it came time to choose a university, I was drawn to 56勛圖厙 Bothell. With most of my family being 56勛圖厙 alums, I felt a sense of familiarity and connection with the university. Additionally, I knew that 56勛圖厙 Bothell’s School of Business offered the guidance and resources I needed to succeed.��� 

Ly pushed herself to make the most of her college experience while her business continued to grow. ���I went from never speaking up in class to being able to stand in front of you all today. It wasn’t always easy, and there were moments of doubt and imposter syndrome, but, with each small step, I grew more confident and capable.��� 

Ly, who is graduating in June 2024, saw the potential for the (un)GALA to support other students just like her. In gratitude, guests at the event were given a special treat, a slime goody bag. ���There are a lot of students like me at 56勛圖厙 Bothell,��� Ly said. ���Students with big dreams who just need a little push and guidance to achieve those dreams. For a lot of us, we started from scratch, without much help from our parents. That���s why your support is so important.��� 

You can help fund the big dreams of more students like Angelina by making a gift to the 56勛圖厙 Bothell���s School of Business. Click here to give now. 

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The 56勛圖厙 Bothell-led EERC makes use of the park as an outdoor classroom and living laboratory for research and learning. Community members, including K-12 students, also experience enhanced opportunities to connect with and learn from nature.  

Learning about the world ��� and herself

Carlson���s own love of the outdoors developed early in life, growing up in Ithaca, New York, and mid-coast Maine where nature was never far away. Her parents sent her to an outdoor preschool and as the oldest sibling, she was often pulled into her father���s adventures. Carlson remembers some of those experiences viscerally. ���He would take me night sailing in the epic dark waters off coastal Maine, with the aurora borealis in the night sky above,��� she said. ���The boat stirred up the phosphorescent diatoms in the cold Atlantic below. It was so surreal and so emblematic of my father���s fluidity across science and spirituality.��� 

While Carlson views her father as the philosopher in the family, her mother was more of an activist. She taught English as a Second Language to Cornell���s international faculty wives, helping them get a toe hold in Ithaca society. She also transformed abandoned lots into community gardens in Washington, D.C. Thrift, frugality and a Do-It-Yourself outlook on life was central to the family ethos. Challenges were often met with an ���If not you, then who?��� approach to getting a job done. 

While in elementary school, Carlson was deeply affected by her father���s explanation that the human population was growing exponentially while the earth���s resources remained finite. When Carlson asked what she could do, her father���s response, ���If not you, then who?��� motivated her to organize her first environmental organization ��� an ecology club made up of three friends who met in shrubs behind her house. They conducted ���salamander monitoring expeditions��� in the creeks and gorges of Ithaca.  

In high school, Carlson traveled to Cape Cod to clean up oiled birds after a major oil spill off the George���s Bank. By college, she was studying natural resource management at the University of Maine. She jumped at the chance to do an internship with The Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. That internship evolved into a paid fellowship which ultimately launched a 30-year career with several national environmental NGOs in the district. 

Along the way, Carlson directed EnvironMentors, an environmental science mentorship program for diverse high school students interested in environmentally related college degree programs. Carlson helped scale the program to include chapters in 14 partner universities. Working with faculty and administrators to launch the EnvironMentors chapters at across the country kindled Carlson���s interest in the powerful role universities could play in the environmental education ecosystem, particularly related to high school to college bridging programs for diverse youth.  

A vision for environmental education and research

After 30 years in the nation���s capital, it was time to follow a dream to live closer to nature. Carlson and her husband, Eric, moved back to his hometown in the Puget Sound region, settling into a house in large part because of its proximity to Saint Edward State Park.  

She envisioned the park as a place for community connections to nature and potentially to fulfill a dream to help create a university-led environmental education center of which there are few nationally. Having just moved from the East Coast and knowing very few people, Carlson consulted with her father on how to get a campaign underway and who could help. His first words were, ���If not you, then who?��� His main advice was ���to just get the right people in a room.��� This set the stage for an upcoming three-year period of building support for the EERC. 

During this period, Carlson presented at community and state park commission meetings, met with state park leadership, North Shore legislators, and 56勛圖厙 faculty and administrators. She played a central role in early fundraising and secured and helped to direct the EERC���s year-long planning process for community engagement. 

Soon, some of the larger features of the future EERC began to fall into place when the right people joined together. A lease between Washington State Parks and Daniels Real Estate included 2,000 square feet for the EERC; state Rep. Gerry Pollet sponsored a planning grant for the EERC���s programming; former senator David Frockt secured a capital construction grant to renovate a former gym annex for the EERC���s facility; former 56勛圖厙 Bothell chancellor Wolf Yeigh awarded the EERC a three-year capacity building grant; the EERC���s Faculty Oversight Committee was formed, with professors Dr. Warren Gold and Dr. Santiago Lopez serving as the EERC���s faculty directors, and Lily Cason was hired as the EERC���s program manager.  

The years between 2017 and 2020 seemed like something of a windfall for the EERC. Then the COVID pandemic hit. Renovating the gym annex during the pandemic resulted in supply chain delays and cost overruns. The architect���s design for the EERC facility included a garage door that would open to an Outdoor Learning Area (OLA), yet construction funds were exhausted renovating the EERC���s interior. Carlson���s mother died, and what was to be an inspiring Outdoor Learning Area was instead a pile of rubble outside the garage door.  

Securing the facility���s finishing touches

In the wake of his wife���s passing, Carlson���s father created a small family foundation in her honor with a mission ���to help ensure a cohesive democracy which thrives in an environmentally sustainable world.��� The family believes there is no better way to achieve both aspects of this mission than to connect people to nature in ways that inspire stewardship and build community. 

A foundation contribution to 56勛圖厙 Bothell to finish the OLA was among her father���s first major gifts. This too occurred during the latter part of the pandemic, and further cost overruns resulted in insufficient funds to complete the OLA as envisioned by the EERC���s architects. At this point, running out of resources, Susan���s architect husband volunteered to build the final details of a trellis, planters and bench supports in their garage. The now completed OLA is dedicated to Susan���s parents, Sam and Mary Lawrence, who made sure she spent her formative years outdoors, immersed in nature.

While Carlson will accept that these early-life influences may have lit the spark for the EERC, she is also quick to state the EERC is much less about her as an individual than it is a testament to the power of a positive vision which is shared by many. 

���I am in awe of the enormous patience, persistence and perseverance invested by so many 56勛圖厙 Bothell faculty, staff and administrators to bring what started as an idea to life as a major new facility and academic center supporting student learning, research and community connections.���   

���I sincerely hope hundreds of 56勛圖厙 Bothell students will benefit from the EERC and will be inspired to follow their own ideas and vision for the future they want to live in.��� 

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For 2023, 56勛圖厙 Bothell named Washington State Employees Credit Union (WSECU) as the first corporate recipient of the award. WSECU���s relationship with 56勛圖厙 Bothell dates to the mid ���90s when WSECU first began conducting financial wellness workshops on campus for students as well as faculty and staff. Since then, the credit union has supported 56勛圖厙 Bothell and the 56勛圖厙 at large through a number of scholarships, donations and event sponsorships. Learn more about WSECU���s deep and broad support in this video. 

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