Features

When Professor Geneva Gay began her career as a high school social studies teacher more than four decades ago, the concept of multicultural education was still in its infancy. No university had even started offering a doctoral program in the field.

Two University of Washington College of Education faculty members, Assistant Professor Soojin Oh Park and Associate Professor Holly S. Schindler, will study child and family well-being in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic with a grant awarded by the UW Population Health Initiative.  

Any other mentor might have advised Maria Oropeza Fujimoto against the choices she made in graduate school: She got married. She moved thousands of miles away from her college. She had a baby. She worked a job while finishing her dissertation.

But Manka Varghese, a professor in the College of Education at the University of Washington and Oropeza’s mentor, didn’t see these choices as jeopardizing her mentee’s education. Varghese saw these choices as Oropeza living her life.

More than 700 new educators, researchers and leaders were honored during the University of Washington College of Education’s graduation ceremonies on June 9, with speakers highlighting the Class of 2020’s power to tip the scales to ensure a high quality and affirming education for all youth, especially those farthest removed from educational justice.

Dean Mia Tuan noted that this year’s graduation took place against the backdrop of nationwide uprisings over systemic racial inequality.