Uniquely Washington – Academic Community

During the past few months, I’ve talked with you about our vision as an 
institution and the seven statements that we consider Uniquely Washington.  

We hold ourselves to the highest standard of excellence.  We are world leaders in 
research. As a community, we foster a spirit of innovation.  We are deeply 
committed to serving all our citizens. We assume leadership roles to make our 
world a better place through education and research, and prepare our students to 
be engaged and responsible citizens of the world.  And we celebrate and accept 
the challenge to preserve and protect this wonderful place we live in.

Today completes our journey through Uniquely Washington and we focus on our 
institution as an academic community.  We are first and foremost, a group of 
learners
and teachers…of educating the next generation.  We are very, very fortunate to be 
able to attract a very diverse community of students.  We bring them here to the 
University of 
Washington.  We have them for a relatively short period of time where we 
provide them with the richest learning experiences to transform their lives and 
prepare them to be leaders as they go back out into the world around them. 

As educators, we provide access to excellence, we foster creativity, we challenge 
the boundaries of knowledge.  And we create a powerful interaction among 
academic disciplines that makes it possible for students and faculty to take on the 
most difficult problems in medicine, science, humanities, the arts and social 
sciences.  

The experiences our students have, both inside and outside of the classroom, 
provide a great opportunity to design a future that will take full advantage of their 
skills and talents.

And no where is this more evident than at our Undergraduate Research 
Symposium.
This is actually the 10th anniversary of this symposium.  It is the largest of any of 
its kind in the country.   There are over 650 students here and over 500 mentors.  
Showing the product of their research experience at the University of Washington.   
A large proportion of our students actually get these kinds of experiences here 
where they get to go beyond the classroom, beyond the textbook, and really show 
what they can learn through these kinds of experiences.  Today, actually is the 
first time that the performing arts have representation here with five different 
projects.

And here is what our students have to say about their experiences. 

The opportunity to do research is actually THE defining reason I was at the UW. 
There was actually several other schools I was looking at and everybody said 
you’ll get research maybe in your junior year, maybe in your senior year, no way 
as a freshman. 
And the UW was like, “do you want to start this summer?”

We have biology, we have astronomy, we have physics, we have biochemistry, 
we have engineering and we have a million different kinds of engineering and so 
it gives…it makes you realize that this school is just so much bigger than just 
your own department.
And you’re allowed to explore that too, which is really nice about the UW.

I’m actually doing research on epilepsy.  When you’re engaging in research and 
you let people know about it, then they think, yeah, you’re taking that extra step 
to do something with your academic career because you’re not just going to 
classes and listening to lectures with another 500 people…you’re taking it to a 
personal level and you’re focusing in on something that is important to 
you….because you pick what you want to research.     

It takes all sorts of people to make an academic community vibrant…and we’ve 
talked about some of these things in our videos on Uniquely Washington.  We are 
always looking for ways to promote our core values of integrity, diversity, 
excellence, collaboration, innovation and respect in everything that we do here at 
the UW.

A vision statement is really just that…a vision statement on a piece of paper…
until we make it alive, until we make it guide what we do everyday.  I’ll continue 
to come to your colleges and your departments, to hear from you, to listen about 
your discoveries, 
your accomplishments, the challenges that you face.  I hope you’ll send your 
comments to our website at washington.edu/discovery.   And I look forward to 
seeing you again in the fall, when we start a new academic year 
together…teaching, learning and discovering.