Even on Monday mornings, walking into 乱伦社区 Information Technology鈥檚 (UW-IT) Student Innovation Lab (SIL) feels like stepping into possibility. The whiteboards are crowded with arrows and diagrams. As I open my laptop, a yellow sticky note below my keyboard catches my eye: delightfully tenacious.
It鈥檚 curled at the corners now, having been there since I scribbled those words after meeting with Helen Garrett, university registrar and my Honors experiential learning supervisor.
As part of the , I was asked to step beyond the classroom and apply my education to real problems in the community. That charge led me to the Office of the University Registrar, the unit that manages student records, registration and key academic systems, where I began exploring how information systems influence the student experience.
As an informatics major, I was drawn to the ways back-end systems affect day-to-day student life. Working with Helen and the registrar鈥檚 office offered a rare chance to bridge my coursework with the large-scale systems that support academic planning and student success.
Seeing the students behind the systems
In Helen鈥檚 office, we sat side by side, looking out the window toward the pedestrian bridge that connects West Campus to Red Square. It was the final week of winter quarter. Outside, students hurried across, bundled up, headphones on, and wearing the unmistakable look of finals week fatigue.
We watched for a moment in silence. Helen reminded me that behind every student number is a complicated story 鈥� a student juggling classes, jobs, family, health, questions about belonging. Some are thriving, some are overwhelmed and some are one setback away from changing their path entirely. Our work, she told me, is about more than forms and policies; it鈥檚 about clearing paths so students can focus on learning and growing.
That idea tied together the threads of everything I had been studying. Informatics has taught me to see the human ecosystems behind information technology 鈥� to understand how networks of decisions, technologies and policies shape lives. Interdisciplinary Honors, with its emphasis on thinking across disciplines and engaging with my community, pushed me to move beyond lectures and assignments and discover how my education can be applied to real-world challenges.
In the registrar鈥檚 office, I could see how these principles define the Husky Experience. The information systems students rely on 鈥� registration, major applications, learning platforms, financial aid, access to clubs and research 鈥� form the interconnected infrastructure of their time at the UW. When these systems work well, students succeed. When they don鈥檛, they can hinder progress in ways students feel long before the data reflects it.
Through meetings with deans, vice provosts, professors and UW-IT professionals, I researched the problems students face through the lens of information systems 鈥� how policy, data systems and academic structures translate into lived experience. I also spoke with students navigating those systems, from capacity-constrained majors to the search for clubs, research and communities that bring the Husky Experience to life outside the classroom.
Sitting in those rooms, I began to see how decisions about data, policy and process travel outward, affecting everything from how students register for classes to how they understand their progress toward a degree.
I learned that many students who encounter these challenges don鈥檛 just accept them 鈥� they try to fix them. They design prototypes, develop apps and build data tools. But without clear guidance, they often hit roadblocks: policy violations, data restrictions and no obvious pathway for a student project to influence real UW technology systems.
One student built an app that let classmates trade class sections 鈥� a clever fix to a widespread frustration, but one that violated registration policy. When Helen told me the story that winter, it wasn鈥檛 with disapproval but with admiration for the student鈥檚 creativity. Together, we began to imagine how students and the University could collaborate on solutions rather than work around each other. I thought to myself: If one administrator could recognize and empower student innovation like this, what might be possible if the entire University did the same?
Working with UW-IT Student Educational Technology Services (SETS), we began to lay the groundwork for a space where students could build their ideas and meaningfully participate in the UW鈥檚 technology ecosystem. Together, we submitted a proposal to the ), requesting $136,000 to build an API that would give students safe access to anonymized University data for prototyping.
Informatics has taught me to see the human ecosystems behind information technology 鈥� to understand how networks of decisions, technologies and policies shape lives. Interdisciplinary Honors, with its emphasis on thinking across disciplines and engaging with my community, pushed me to move beyond lectures and assignments and discover how my education can be applied to real-world challenges.
When experiential learning gets personal
My internship was coming to an end, and I still hadn鈥檛 heard back about the grant. As I waited for a decision, uncertainty weighed on me. I picked at my nails and poured out my fears to Helen with a lump in my throat. I wasn鈥檛 ready to be done; the work didn鈥檛 feel finished. I wanted to graduate having contributed to real change 鈥� leaving something behind for the students who came after me.
鈥淏ella,鈥� she said, 鈥渞egardless of what happens with the grant, you are delightfully tenacious.鈥�
Tears welled in my eyes. I had gone to Helen, lost and riddled with impostor syndrome, looking for a way to apply my education to meaningful work in my community. Over the course of my Honors internship, she helped build my courage and confidence to succeed. After our meeting, I wrote 鈥渄elightfully tenacious鈥� on that sticky note and taped it to my laptop.
Student innovation creates impact
A few months later, the grant was approved. With resources from SETS, the is now an established space for students from any discipline to turn their ideas into impact. To design, test and even learn through failure. Because when students are empowered, they do great things.
Today, our team is building the HuskyFetch API 鈥� an application programming interface that will let students design and test realistic tools using nonsensitive, anonymized UW data, without ever touching personal information or putting production systems at risk.
To make the lab more inclusive of less technical disciplines, we also launched a project showcase on our website, where we feature student designs, prototypes and fully developed web apps that address problems in the UW community. One of our student engineers first came to our attention through a course-discovery tool he built on his own; that project led him to the Student Innovation Lab and eventually into his role on the HuskyFetch API team.
Now, when I sit in the lab and look around at the whiteboards filled with notes from the student engineers working on HuskyFetch, I glance back at that note on my computer. Delightfully tenacious. These words have grounded me.
I鈥檒l graduate before the API is complete, and my student employment will end. I still don鈥檛 feel finished, but I鈥檝e realized that鈥檚 the nature of this work: It’s never truly done. Each year brings new students, new ideas and new challenges in how the UW serves its community. The Student Innovation Lab exists for that very reason 鈥斅� to mobilize and empower students to keep building what comes next.
Delightfully tenacious. These words have grounded me.
Student Innovation Lab image gallery
, 鈥�26, is majoring in informatics with a focus in data science and completing the 乱伦社区鈥檚 Interdisciplinary Honors Program. She studies the intersections of data, design, technology, policy and people, using a systems-thinking approach grounded in human behavior and storytelling, and hopes to build a career focused on designing ethical, accessible technologies that meaningfully serve communities. Boulter is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Learn more at her .