Cindy Hu

Honors 100
November 16, 2015
Assignment 4
I interviewed with Laura Gumz, a freshman in the UW honors program from Texas.
Laura came to the University of Washington because she was appealed by being in a liberal city,
the honors program, and the area around UW. She hopes to major in political science with the
potential to double major in political science and finance. In high school she really enjoyed pre
calc, government, and history classes. She was the president of the young democrats club at her
school, a member of the third wave feminist club, part of academic decathlon in her school and a
fellow for the Dallas county Democratic Party. Currently at UW she is taking Art history, an
honors democracy leadership class, and American politics. She is excited to start taking
accounting classes as well. Laura is deciding between a few career paths. Her dream job is
being a Supreme Court justice. She is not sure yet whether she will go to law school yet. She is
also thinking of becoming an elected official for whatever city she is living in. I loved getting to
know Laura. She seems like such a nice and interesting person.
The easiest thing that I can suggest for Laura to get involved in UW honors is studying
abroad. During our interview Laura mentioned she has always wanted to go to Tanzania, and
loves to travel. During the in house advising session that the advisors held, I learned that there
will be a trip to Tanzania for the first time. I think this would be a perfect opportunity for her. I
know that this would be kind of scary to go on a study abroad trip after only one year, but I really
think it would be worthwhile for her. The trip focuses on ecotourism which I think sounds like a
really interesting program that based on her interests I know she would love as well.
http://depts.washington.edu/uwhonors/international/tanzania/
Getting to know Laura I found out that leadership is really important to her. She is also
really interested in politics. I think it would be really valuable for her to join ASUW, and
eventually get a leadership position within it. ASUW controls policies at UW and even works
with Washington State legislation to pass bills on education, and important issues to actual
students. If she could actually have position in ASUW it would look amazing on her resume, and
would complement her Political science major. http://www.asuw.org/
Laura also has a love of finance. I think that she would like to be involved research that
involves both finance, and the government. There is a research program being done by Matthew
Denes (finance and Business economics) where he is researching the effect of government
spending on venture capitalism. He is also studying political connections on government
contracts. These both relate to political science and the government, but also utilize her skills
and love of finance. https://expo.uw.edu/expo/opportunities/details/1647