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Distinguished Teaching Awards
David Domke
Erika Goldstein
James Green
John Peterson
Priti Ramamurthy
Barry Witham
Carol Zander

Excellence in Teaching Awards
Chia-Hui Huang
Steve Wolfman

Distinguished Staff Awards
Brian Davis & James Boeckstiegel
Gary Ausman
Felicia Hecker
Sandra Kroupa
Keith Ward

Distinguished Graduate Mentor Award
Thomas Daniel

S. Sterling Munro Public Service Teaching Award
Sergio Palleroni

Outstanding Public Service Award
Anita Ramasastry

Brotman Diversity Award
Business Educational Opportunity Program
Student Outreach Ambassador Program

Brotman Award for Instructional Excellence
Dance Program
Research Apprenticeship Program

Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award
Geoff & Judy Vernon

Alumna Summa Laude Dignatus
Donald Baker

UW Recognition Award
ARCS Foundation, Seattle Chapter

President's Medalist
Roy Chan

Student Outreach Ambassador Program

Brotman Diversity Award

The Brotman Awards were made possible by donations from Jeffrey and Susan Brotmman. Jeffrey Brotman is a UW law school graduate and a regent. Susan Brotman is on the UW Foundation Board of Directors. The Brotman Diversity Award recognizes outstanding programs that advance diversity in the UW community.

The 1998 passage of Initiative 200, with its statewide prohibition of preferential treatment in public education based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin, seemed to deal a body blow to diversity on campus.

But without it, the University of Washington Student Outreach Ambassador Program might not have been born, and the University might not yet have formalized its efforts to reach out to underrepresented groups in search of new students. In just three short years, the program has made such fabulous strides that it won the 2002 Jeff and Susan Brotman Diversity Award.

“It was a student-initiated response to I-200. There had been talk of doing this kind of thing before, but then I-200 passed and there was the sense that ‘We need to do this now,’ ” said Stephanie Miller. As director of student outreach and community relations for the minority affairs and undergraduate admissions offices, Miller has overseen the ambassador program since its inception.

From a modest beginning with one student ambassador in the summer and fall of 1999, the program now has 16 ambassadors, UW students who visit high schools, junior highs, and even elementary schools throughout the region. They talk with kids — particularly those from minority and underrepresented groups — about the University and college life in general, trying to plant the seed that will blossom into a college education.

“The sheer size of the University is the biggest barrier to our eastern Washington constituents, particularly the children of migrant workers,” said Leo Pangelinan, who last year became the ambassador program’s full-time coordinator.

In fact, he said, many of the K-12 students targeted by the program, on both sides of the Cascades, would represent the first generation of their families to attend college. That means their parents might not have had access to information on higher education or are unable to teach their children how to pursue a college path.

But it is hard to argue with the results. There were 1,077 applications to the UW from underrepresented minority students for the term that begins next September, a 25 percent jump from the fall term of 1999, when enrollment was suppressed by the enactment of I-200.

Because of the combined efforts of recruiters, ambassadors and UW counselors who work in designated schools with K-12 students, applications from African-American students for the fall quarter are up 54 percent from a year ago to 391, those from Native Americans rose 14 percent to 147, Latino applications are up 5 percent to 441 and those from Hawaiians and Pacific islanders are up 43 percent to 80.

“The UW is still a tough sell to underrepresented students, and it always has been,” said Ellen Azose, assistant admissions and recruitment director in the Office of Minority Affairs. “This is something we should always have been doing. It’s been gratifying to get the institutional support for this.”

The UW students who work as ambassadors often also serve as officers in organizations for minority students or in the Associated Students of the University of Washington. Many of those groups already are doing their own outreach work to bring minority students to campus. Whether on a volunteer basis with their student groups or as paid ambassadors, the work isn’t easy, Miller said. They have to battle perceptions of the UW being a less-than-welcoming place for minority students, in part because of the small number of faculty members of color.

The program has an informal two-year limit on ambassador posts. But in those years, the students work with schools, community groups and campus organizations to recruit new students. Along the way, they pick up a variety of skills, particularly in communications and program administration. The program has proven to be a boon for the ambassadors, for the institutions they work with, for the students they recruit to the UW and for the University.

“I think everybody was surprised and pleased at how successful it was. I think a lot of people wondered if it would dry up and blow away after awhile,” Miller said. “But instead of that, we have competition for the ambassador positions. It’s a lot of work, but there are capable young people lining up to do that work.”

– Vince Stricherz
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