Our “Get to Know Our EduDawgs” series celebrates the incredible undergraduate and graduate students who make up the UW College of Education community. Through student interviews and storytelling, we’re highlighting the passions, experiences and perspectives that shape their journeys — in the classroom, in the community and beyond. 🌎✨

Each story is a glimpse into what drives our future educators, researchers and advocates to make a difference.

Editor's note: This story was written by student associate Winston N. through the College of Education’s partnership with Cristo Rey Jesuit Seattle High School.

Daniel Yi: Making College Fair for Everyone

Daniel Yi (PhD, Organizational and Policy Studies)

Hometown 

Sammamish, Washington  

Experience

High school science teacher in Mercer Island High School, Seattle World School, and Bellevue High School; doctoral student and researcher

Inspiration 

“...the power of the ask. If you want something, help, guidance, or an opportunity, just ask. More people want to help more than you think.”

Daniel Yi grew up in Sammamish, Washington, and went to Skyline High School. He got his college degree from the University of Washington (UW), then earned his master's degree in teaching from Seattle University. Now he's back at UW getting his PhD in Educational Policy, Organization, and Leadership at the College of Education, advised by Dr. Julia Duncheon.  

Daniel became a high school science teacher before starting his doctoral journey. He taught at Mercer Island and Bellevue, which are well-known to be highly funded districts. He also taught at Seattle World School in South Seattle, a school that primarily serves immigrant, refugee, and underserved students of color. Teaching the same classes in such different environments made him think deeply about what he was really accomplishing as a teacher.

“The complete 180 of experiences that I had teaching the same subjects at two completely different school environments,” Daniel said.

One common theme that Daniel observed, no matter where he taught, was the importance of college to his high school students. This made Yi want to understand how students think about college, and the kinds of hoops that we as a society make them jump through to gain acceptance. His research looks at college access, fairness and how schools, both at the high school and college level, can have good intentions, but make inequality worse.  

Yi works with his advisor, Dr. Julia Duncheon, associate professor or Educational Policy, Organization and Leadership, who taught him about the importance of literature. His first year as a PhD student meant reading constantly and learning how to really navigate the different challenges that came with academia.

“My advisor (Dr. Duncheon) has very high expectations,” Daniel shared. “Which I appreciate! But she balances that always with very constructive feedback. She never lets me get away with weak thinking or unsound logic, but is always very encouraging.”

Daniel, while assisting Dr. Duncheon with her ongoing dual enrollment research, discovered that many early college programs communicate to students they'll save money, earn credits early, or get ahead of other students, if they enroll in these programs. Because of this, students see college as just a way to make more money and move up in society instead of as a chance to actually learn and grow as a person.

“Where you go to college, from my experience, has become about prestige and status, and transactional in nature” Yi explained. “Students volunteer to pad their resumes, take AP classes to look competitive,  and choose colleges solely based on rankings. That's not what higher education was meant to be.”

Daniel is currently researching how wealthy families can get their kids into top colleges more easily. He's gaining the perspectives of high school students, specifically those whose families pay private companies tens of thousands of dollars to help them curate the “perfect” college application. Many of these students know this isn't fair, but they do it anyway.

“They feel bad about it,” Daniel said. “But they tell me, 'Don't hate the player, hate the game.' If you have the money, why wouldn't you use it?”

And Daniel’s research certainly doesn't blame individual students for using the resources available to them. Instead, he hopes to understand how the college admissions system itself pushes our society to create even more unfair advantages, and what can be done to make it more equal for everyone.

Daniel recently attended his first academic conference and presented his research. He got to meet other education researchers from around the world and receive feedback on his work.

“You realize that people do care deeply about education,” he said. “Especially at a time when education feels like it's becoming less and less meaningful, and more and more young people perceive the value of it to be slipping away.”

Daniel's current work under Dr. Duncheon is looking at how programs designed to help students, like early college classes, might unintentionally create a system where some students are labeled as “high achievers” while others are left behind. Daniel hopes his research will help schools create programs that actually give everyone a fair chance, not just give advantages to students who already have them.

Despite studying these big problems in education, Daniel believes in small, everyday solutions for students trying to navigate the system. His best advice? Just ask for what you need.  

“My best advice is called the Power of the Ask,” Yi said. “If you want something, help, guidance, or an opportunity, just ask. What do you have to lose? And more importantly, more people want to help you and see you succeed more than you think.”