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May
22, 2004, 16S:
Special Commencement Issue
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Bechtel
Achievement Award: Emery
Sanford, ME
Bechtel
Engineering Scholarship:
Austin Minnich, Eng. Science
Departmental
Citation Winners:
Ryan Doan, BioE
Sarah Gidding, CEE
Kevin Simler, EECS
Olivia Or, Eng. Science
Anthony Paganini, IEOR
Priam Pillai, MSE
Matt Panzer, ME
Ryan Hannink, NE
Other
Departmental Awards
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Photo
by Angela Privin
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BioE major
Hwang speaks on the roads ahead after graduation
For BioE senior Jennifer Hwang,
nothing she envisioned in college turned out exactly the way she planned.
For that she’s thankful.
“I’m in a different place now than I thought I would be when
I started college, and I couldn’t be happier,” she says.
One of the most important lessons that Jennifer learned at Berkeley was
how to be flexible about her life plans and be open to the detours that
were thrown at her. She will share that wisdom with fellow seniors and
their loved ones as this year’s commencement student speaker.
Jennifer hopes her speech, entitled “Directions and Road Maps for
the Future,” will help other perfectionists and overachievers move
forward when things don’t always go according to plan. She also wants
to stress the importance of letting the future unfold.
“Many of us don’t know what we are going to do after grad school,
and that’s scary because we think we should. But, it’s okay
not to know and it’s okay to have no plan,” she says.
In high school, Jennifer was convinced she would become a doctor. She
applied to the biology programs of every college she wanted to attend,
except Berkeley. At the last minute, she applied as a BioE major to Cal.
At Berkeley, her childhood dream of becoming a doctor was supplanted by
new possibilities. She realized she wanted to go to graduate school and
do research and considered a career as a professor. Now, she feels comfortable
with the uncertainty of the future and trusts her intuition to guide her.
For a structure-loving group like engineers, this particular lesson might
be hard to swallow, but Jennifer assures it will help assuage the stress
and fear that often accompany life-changing events like graduation.
Jennifer says she’s leaving Berkeley more of an extrovert and less
of a perfectionist than when she came in. After experiencing the shock
of Berkeley’s academic rigor and expansive workload, she’s realized
that she couldn’t do everything and she couldn’t do it alone.
“What got me through was my support network and learning to ask for
help,” she says.
While Berkeley Engineering is a universally tough experience Jennifer
is drawn to the challenge like a moth to a flame.
“I seek out the things that scare me. When you overcome that fear
and succeed, it’s exhilarating. It just makes you want more.”
That thirst for challenge is what spurred Jennifer to get extensively
involved in research with BioE professors at Berkeley and UCSF, tutor
biology, and still make time for officer positions in the BioE student
society, EMBS, and honor society Tau Beta Pi. That doesn’t mean she
sacrifices the things she enjoys like hiking, running, snowboarding, learning
to cook, and hanging out with friends.
Next year Jennifer is off to UCSD for a Ph.D. in BioE, funded by a National
Science Foundation fellowship. While her future seems set for the next
few years, she says her plans for afterwards remain open.
“I’ll go wherever life takes me.”
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