Welcome to my University of Washington Honors Program Portfolio.

My hope is that this

page allows you to survey my academic and experiential journey at the Honors Program and the
University of Washington.
My journey to entering the University of Washington Interdisciplinary Honors Program is
far from ordinary. The year was 2012. I was beginning my senior year of high school. I was
certain at the time that I had completed the perfect plan of what was to be my adult life. My final
year of pre-higher education was going to be a simple task like that of a leisurely walk in one of
Washington States most scenic parks. It was to be a time in which all focus and preparation
would be targeted toward the future and the present would become a thing ignored like the
forgotten past. At that time, I was certain that I would attend either the University of California at
Berkeley, American University in Washington, DC, Georgetown, or the beloved flagship only
sixty miles north of my hometown proudly known as the home of the Washington Huskies. Upon
completion of my senior year, I was still on what I considered the one and only path through my
professional journey toward financial and material success. I would still take advantage of all
possible resources available to me at the UW in order to become a titan of the league of
American litigators. Walking about Red Square and into my first day of Theodore Myhres, Law
and Society: Landmark Cases for Social Justice, I had constructed a path for myself and my
journey throughout college. Yet, I did not know that the narrowest of paths can become a whole
lot wider with the taste of a little thing called Interdisciplinary Education.
Bored with the idea of simplistic pre-law courses, I decided that the best course of action
to take to enjoy my studies at the UW was to choose course material that interested me, whether
or not the classes possessed any merit in law or graduate school preparation. I soon found that
taking unrelated courses like Ronald Moores, Philosophical Issues in Law and Hamza
Zafers, Introduction to the Quran allowed me to explore different fields of study, gain new
perspectives, and unite complex ideas through a process of critical reasoning. I am now a
member of the Interdisciplinary Honors Program at the University of Washington. My belief is
that this is an institution that focuses on the ideas of interdisciplinary education and experiential
learning, two characteristics that I believe are necessary for university level intellectual
development.
As my Honors 100 course is now nearing its final days I think it is time to reflect on my
experience. I began Honors 100 not knowing how the course would impact me. I now see the
numerous benefits that the course has offered. My individual section was composed of a number
of late admit honors students. Each student possessed academic and extracurricular interests that

were both specifically unique to the individual student and broad enough to be shared by others.
I found this characteristic quite beneficial as a still curious second-year student. For example,
during the second lectures honors faculty panel, I learned that a colleague of mine and I shared
an interest in the work of one of the panelists. Although he and I are in entirely different
academic departments, we were both interested in Karam Danas, Islam and Muslims in Western
Contexts. Additionally, I have found Honors 100s presentation of resources and advising
exceptionally helpful. Through this course, I have gained a peer educator that studies in a field
quite similar to mine as well as an introduction to numerous other resources that I am confident I
will utilize throughout my time in Honors. These resources include Honors advisers and Honors
study abroad opportunities. Ultimately, Honors 100 has welcomed me to an exceptional
institution of interdisciplinary education and experiential learning. I have been challenged to
spread my critical thought process across a variety of fields and urged not to limit my curiosity.