Karanbir Singh thanks donors for supporting UW CSE undergraduates
UW CSE’s Scholarship and Fellowship Donor Recognition Luncheon is an annual tradition and one of our favorite events of the year. On Thursday, we held our 2016 luncheon to honor the individuals, families and organizations whose generosity keeps a CSE education within reach for undergraduate students regardless of means, and also enables us to recruit the most talented graduate students to our research program. With their support, UW CSE’s 29 endowed scholarship funds and 19 endowed fellowship funds are assisting 98 UW CSE undergraduate and graduate students this year to obtain a first-rate education and research experience.
Each year, we invite two recipients—one undergraduate and one graduate—to share their personal stories of how they came to UW CSE and what their scholarship or fellowship has meant to them. At the 2016 luncheon, Karan Singh and Annie Ross shared their stories and offered thanks on behalf of all of the students who have benefited from our donors’ support.
Singh is a third-year undergraduate student and recipient of the Burkhardt Family Endowed Scholarship. He serves as a teaching assistant for CSE’s introductory programming courses and has been accepted into the combined B.S./M.S. program. Singh told of his path from pre-med to computer science, when he was inspired to trade pipettes for programming. He looks forward to putting his computer science education to good use in order to improve education and health care.
Annie Ross thanks donors for giving student researchers the gift of time
Ross is a first-year Ph.D. student and the holder of the Wilma Bradley Endowed Fellowship. She works with CSE professor James Fogarty and CSE adjunct faculty member Jacob Wobbrock of the iSchool in the area of human-computer interaction. Ross discovered computer science after taking a CS course for the sake of a technical challenge while majoring in film production. She decided to pursue her Ph.D. in human-computer interaction as it gives her an opportunity to combine the creativity and human connection she found in film with her love of math and science.
Ross cited the supportive atmosphere as one of the reasons she chose UW CSE. But it was her fellowship that gave her the freedom to explore research areas that personally interest her which has defined her graduate school experience. Ross closed her remarks by recalling a conversation she had with her benefactor that perfectly illustrates the lasting impact of our donors’ generosity on our students.
“I had the absolute pleasure of having lunch with Ms. Bradley, the donor for my scholarship, earlier this year. Something she said really rang true with me: ‘One of the greatest gifts we can give to one another is time,’” said Ross.
“I’d like to take a moment to thank all of the generous donors who, through your fellowships and scholarships, have given us time to explore our interests and focus on our passions.”
Read about our terrific donors and the students they support in the luncheon program here.
Watch a video here of the remarks by Karan Singh and Annie Ross.
Our heartfelt thanks to all who support UW CSE and our students!