Donna Sakson and Jonathan Mark, Donna's husband, established the Sakson Diversity Undergraduate Scholarship fund to bring more under-represented minority students into the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) and thus into the profession. "By offering educational opportunities, we expand diversity both in the educational setting and in our professional community," Sakson said.

Below are previous recipients of the Sakson Diversity Undergraduate Scholarship.

2011

Thuy Duong (left) and Amado Robancho are the recipients of the 2011 Sakson Undergraduate Diversity Scholarship.

Thuy Duong is currently an undergraduate student in Human Centered Design and Engineering as well as Informatics: Human-Computer Interaction. She is also a National Science Foundation S-STEM scholar. Her ultimate goal in life is to make positive contributions to our world through simple, thoughtful and meaningful technology designs. One of her main academic area of interests lies with the design, usability and accessibility of technology in resource-constrained environments. In 2008, Thuy graduated as valedictorian from Franklin High School and was the first in her family to attend college. In 2009, she volunteered at InterConnection to refurbish donated computers to send to underprivileged communities around the world where the supply of technological resources are low. In the summer of 2012, Thuy is going to Ghana on a research-based Exploration Seminar to conduct field research on information communication technologies in low resource communities.

Amado Robancho is pursuing a BS in Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) and Informatics with a focus in Human-Computer Interaction. He is graduating in the spring of 2013. He comes from a Filipino-American family, and is the first in his family to attend college.

Amado loves to sing, dance and travel. In the summer of 2011, he studied abroad in Viet Nam. He worked with PeaceTrees Viet Nam, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping disadvantaged communities in Viet Nam. He helped build a playground for a rural, low-income kindergarten school. He placed concrete foundation and tiles in the home of an underprivileged family. He also planted trees in the Quang Tri Province, where the bombs of the Viet Nam War had destroyed most of the forestation. In the upcoming summer, he is conducting field research in Ghana to analyze the use of information and communication technologies in low-resource environments.

2009

Alexis Hope is currently a second-year MS student in HCDE. Alexis completed the HCI pathway to complete her undergraduate HCDE degree in spring 2010. Alexis' academic interests include engineering education, virtual reality, information design, computer games, communications technologies, and programming. She is also currently working on the portable ultrasound research project with Professor Beth Kolko.

Alexis has volunteered with the Seattle YMCA—working on a digital literacy program—and Rosehedge AIDS Healthcare & Housing. In the future, Alexis would like to work to develop engineering outreach and education programs for young women.  In the summer of 2009, Alexis completed a software testing and user-experience design internship.

2008

Hannah Getachew finished her undergraduate degree in HCDE in spring 2010. She recently accepted a job as an IT Analyst at Liberty Mutual. Over the past two years at UW, Hannah was involved in various activities through the Minority Science and Engineering Program that have led her to pursue a degree in HCDE. After completing a summer IT internship at The Boeing Company, she worked for UW's Office of Research as a Web Assistant. She is an active member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Her leadership at UW NSBE chapter level included Programs Chair and Senator, where she served on the NSBE Regional executive board.

Hannah comes from an Ethiopian-American family, and she is active in the local Ethiopian Community. She has been involved with literacy-improvement programs and hopes to one day establish a technology-literacy school in Ethiopia. In the spring of 2009, she was involved in an HCDE research group with Visiting Professor Voichita Ghengea, where they explored Cross-cultural documentation and usability.

Phun Lang graduated from HCDE in December 2010. She completed a double degree in HCDE and Art: Painting and Drawing, and has various interests in programming and usability. She was a previous high school intern at Microsoft and currently works at the UW Technology Service Center as a Development Lead and Email Analyst. She has learned a great deal regarding the maintenance of large networks, usability testing and working in a team, lessons that she feels will be valuable in the future. Phun will be the first in her family to finish college and is looking forward to becoming an HCDE graduate. She speaks Cantonese fluently and understands Mandarin and some Japanese. She hopes to travel after graduating and is just coming back from an Exploration Seminar in Japan. Her hobbies include playing golf, reading and writing.

2007

Rick Price received his BSTC from the Department of Technical Communication in 2008. He began his college career at Centralia College receiving Associate Degrees in Computer Science and Foreign Language. While at Centralia College, he was deployed with Washington State National Guard's 81st Brigade to Baghdad Iraq for one year. While at UW he lived in Lacey and commuted to the UW by way of car and bus, which was the equivalent to a 3-hour commute everyday.

Rick is currently employed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) as a Technical Writer. Prior to this position, Rick completed an internship at the Port of Tacoma writing policy for employees at the Port, relevant to Information Technology. Rick felt that this internship gave him insight into how Information Technology Departments work, and experience as to what a Technical Editor/Writer offered as a profession. Rick credits HCDE for his success as a student, and easy access to available scholarships. Rick would like to especially thank Gian Bruno and Karen Kasonic for their patience and encouragement.

Brook Sattler received her BSTC in 2008 and her MS in HCDE in 2010 from HCDE. She is currently a PhD student in HCDE studying engineering education. Since fall 2003, she actively worked with the College of Engineering's minority outreach program, the GenOM Project. Through working with the GenOM Project, Ms. Sattler worked not only academically, but socially with students, particularly underrepresented students.

In 2006, Ms. Sattler helped found the national sorority, Sigma Lambda Gamma (SLG), at the University of Washington. SLG is a Latina-based multi-cultural sorority. Through SLG, Brook Sattler helped empower diverse women on the University of Washington campus.