Ana Marie and Me

By: Lauren Graves

Before choosing who I relate to most, I think it’s important to reflect on myself and what I value. I am a
mixed-race LGBT woman, who wants to focus her career on helping others. I am interested in
Psychology, research, childhood development, as well as supporting my local community. I will be
pursuing grad school after my time here at UW, and hopefully will end up back in Washington working in
the places I grew up in.

Out of everyone we were introduced to these first few weeks, I connected most with our own president,
Ana Marie Cauce. Her early career reflects my dreams for my own future. As of October 27th, 2020, I am
officially a Psychology major and GWSS minor. Hearing that Cauce has held prominent positions in both
the Psychology and GWSS departments here piqued my interest in her. She is also a gay woman of color
and values the same things that I do. Through her interview and reading up on her, she seems the most
similar to me.

I immediately connected with Cauce after learning about her grad school life and major. I’ve always been
specifically interested in child clinical psychology and it was wonderful to hear someone so successful in
life taking the same approach as I want to. It feels validating knowing that my education plans can lead to
something as amazing as being president of a university. I’ve been searching for grad schools that reflect
my interests and her background at Yale has given me insights on possible schooling options for my
future. Obviously, Yale would be a dream come true, but I am also interested in the University of Denver,
as well as UW’s own grad school.

While I had never been interested in administration, Cauce showed me just how valuable a good
administrator is. Her experience within taking over the Ethnic Studies department shed a light on a
possible future career path for me. I realized from her talk that Psychology and Administration go hand in
hand and both require a need to care for one’s own community. A good administrator is someone who
represents those they are administrating. This is the same in Psychology, you want a psychologist that you
can relate to and that represents you well.

These past weeks, I’ve been introduced to numerous amounts of important staff throughout the University
of Washington. From Biologists to Deans to Indigenous educators, I’ve been able to learn about our very
own community here in Washington. While all of these people are important to me and taught me
valuable things, I connected most with our very own President Ana Marie Cauce. She inspires me to do
my best and stay on the path I’ve been making since I was a child. Our similar career goals and family
backgrounds give me hope for the future and assure me that what I’m doing is right. I would love to sit
down with her one day and discuss how her decisions in and out of education lead her to where she is
today.