Undergraduate students in the Department of Chemistry reflect on teaching, learning, researching, and living amid a pandemic and beyond.
Meg Takezawa, undergraduate researcher
Marium Raza, B.S. 2021
Casey Chen, B.S. 2021
Damielle Hieber, undergraduate researcher
Andy Chia, B.S. 2021
Meg Takezawa, undergraduate researcher
As a first-year student at UW, I could not imagine what it felt like to be a college student. I was unsure how to connect with other students and mentors via Zoom until I joined Theberge lab in October 2020. Professor Theberge assigned me to an undergraduate literature project where I collaborated with other undergraduate students and master students within the same group to read many articles about strep throat and the surface chemistry between human cells and oral commensal bacteria. It was very engaging to share our findings and present them with our PIs in our weekly meetings. I was also fascinated by experiments conducted by a Ph.D. student and a researcher who used the oral commensal bacteria that we searched in our readings. Then, in May 2021, other undergraduate students and I presented the full summary of our project at the Undergraduate Research Symposium. These experiences encouraged me to collaborate with other students to study more about our health and inspired me to land a career in biomedical research in the future.
Through COVID, I used Instagram and Zoom a lot to connect with other UW students and professors. At first, it seemed challenging to find people with similar interests or hobbies, but once I joined RSOs [registered student organizations or student clubs], the UW flute studio, and my research team, I was excited to meet new people who shared the same passions as me (especially science!). These interactions helped me stay engaged throughout the year despite the remote setting. It was also inspiring to meet other students and mentors within the same research team who conducted experiments and published articles. Because I had no in-person labs in my chemistry courses, their weekly presentations helped me develop advanced vocabulary and knowledge in chemistry. They also inspired me to read many articles online to find my interests within the same field. To this day, I am very fascinated to pursue my studies in bioanalytical chemistry and to collaborate with the team members.
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Marium Raza, B.S. 2021
A polarizing presidency and a tense election. Mass protests in the wake of Black Lives Matter. A devastating global pandemic. The world is undeniably different from what it was four years ago. And yet we have made it here today. The class of 2021 is graduating, jolting into a world full of uncertainty. The optimists in our class may take a glass half full approach. The pessimists, glass half empty. But we’re all chemists – and we see the glass completely full, half with liquid and half with air. Studying chemistry and biochemistry has uniquely prepared us to face this historic time.
Excerpted from Marium’s abstract of her June 2021 commencement speech. The video of her complete speech is available at https://youtu.be/kqAp-U_uaIY (10:29-16:39).
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Casey Chen, B.S. 2021
I graduated winter quarter this academic year with my Bachelor of Science in Chemistry…I did a lot of things during my time here. I worked in the undergraduate stockroom in Bagley Hall for almost two and a half years. I was the president of the undergraduate chemistry and biochemistry club, Free Radicals. I also just finished TA’ing organic chemistry lab online and I’ve taught general chemistry online for two quarters prior. I truly believe that I wouldn’t have been able to do any of this if it weren’t for that first chemistry class I took freshman year or the people here in the Department of Chemistry.
During the transition to online school, I have seen so many professors put in an exceptional amount of effort into their courses and teaching, and I just want to acknowledge how hard they all worked to make this transition as painless as possible. For example, Professor Dan Fu put in extra time outside of his online lectures and office hours to listen to student feedback and explain nuanced concepts in spectroscopy, and Professor David Masiello managed to teach statistical dynamics in a way that I, someone who is horribly bad at math and abstract concepts, understood. One instructor I had both in-person and online happens to also be one of my other mentors here in the department, Professor Brandi Cossairt. Professor Cossairt was one of the most inspiring professors and mentors I’ve had. Not only did I learn from her teaching in the classroom and Zoom, she also supported us and guided us through all the events and outreach we did in the club.
I was fortunate to receive a number of departmental and university level awards due to my experiences, my mentors, and my family and friends. These awards opened many opportunities for me and my future career. More realistically, they really helped me and my family financially, as my father had fallen ill during my sophomore year, and costs were starting to stack up. So, really, from the bottom of my heart, I want to thank everyone here tonight for being a part of such an amazing community. I would specifically like to thank Christopher and Karen Pohl for their contributions that enabled my continued participation in research; my research advisor and mentors, Professor Matt Bush and Daniele Canzani, Professor Brandi Cossairt for being a mentor to me and all the officers of Free Radicals, all of my professors for their passion and dedication to teaching and making my education here truly exceptional, as well as the wonderful staff and advisers. As for the future, I will be pursuing my PhD in Chemistry at UC Berkeley in the fall, and I could not have done it without the resources and mentorship I found here. I am excited to see what my future holds, as well as to continue following the amazing research and the people here in the Department of Chemistry. Thank you.
Abridged from Casey's remarks at the June 8, 2021 Awards Recognition Event on Zoom.
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Damielle Hieber, undergraduate researcher
I am a transfer student, and my first year at UW was entirely remote. My plan going into UW was to immediately find a lab and start researching ASAP, now I was faced with the challenge of networking with professors entirely online. Professors who no longer had the capacity to bring on undergrads for lab work. I was extremely fortunate to connect with the Theberge lab and start on a literature review project. This led to some at home designing and experimenting. I had never designed or engineered a device before, and yet I was using a 3D printer, researching silicone, and creating prototypes. While the limitations have been daunting in trying to learn everything through my laptop, it has bred creativity. I’m proud to say that I am now a co-patent on the device I helped engineer, a sentence I never imagined typing. I look forward to bringing this resilience and problem solving to my in-person lab work and am excited to see what is in store for me next.
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Andy Chia, B.S. 2021
Congratulations to my fellow graduates for graduating despite the pandemic. My PI has always inspired me to do what I love in structural biochemistry because “it’s something I want to do, rather than something I have to do.” As the Class of 2021, we can view the COVID-19 pandemic and online learning environment as a “want to,” since our class chose to complete our degrees despite the conditions being far from ideal. This will and determination emphasizes our class’s tenacity and love for chemistry, both of which are vital to uncovering the truth about our world. Even though we have our favorites, being educated in all manner of inorganic, organic, analytical, biological, and physical chemistry has taught us what it takes to succeed in areas that we might not be the best in. Nothing in life will be easy, but nothing is impossible. Through our collaborative efforts in chemistry and biochemistry, we have learned the meaning of community. Our friends, colleagues, PIs, staff, and faculty all played a role in helping us achieve this “want to,” and these lessons about community will be useful throughout our lives. Unknown hardships will lay ahead, but our training in lab work, writing, quantitative analysis, and critical thinking prepares us for these uncertainties. Our passions for chemistry and biochemistry will carry us forward into whatever we choose next. So, what will your next “want to” be, and how might you achieve those dreams?
Adapted from Andy’s abstract of his June 2021 commencement speech. The video of his complete speech is available at https://youtu.be/kqAp-U_uaIY (18:05-23:49).
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IN THEIR OWN WORDS: GRADUATE STUDENTS
In Their Own Words: Faculty