Humans of GEN1

GEN1 proudly presents the Humans of GEN1 series!

Are you a first-generation student at the Allen School or know an outstanding first-generation member of the Allen School community? Nominate yourself or them to participate in an interview for our Humans of GEN1 interview series! This is a great chance to share your journey navigating UW and the Allen School and bring to light the diverse perspectives of our community. 

Nomination form is here!

2023 - 2024

Hawa Drammeh

Our next Humans of GEN1 interview is with Hawa Drammeh, an undergraduate CS student at the Allen School! 

Swipe right to learn more about Hawa’s journey, her experience as a first-generation CS student, and her advice for other first-generation computing students! <3

Christy Nguyen

Our next Humans of GEN1 interview is with Christy Nguyen! Christy is a freshman majoring in computer science and is currently serving as one of our two GEN1 interns!! 🤩🤩


Swipe right to learn more about Christy’s interests, CS journey, and experience as a first-gen student at the Allen school! <3

Ha Vi Duong

Our sixth Humans of GEN1 interview is with Ha Vi Duong! Ha Vi is a junior majoring in computer science with a minor in business administration, was previously GEN1’s historian, and is now serving as GEN1’s chair!! 🥳🤩


Swipe right to learn more about Ha Vi’s CS journey, her perspective on the first-gen community, and her experience being a first-gen student at the Allen school! <3

Abdulhamid Ali

Our fifth Humans of GEN1 interview is with Abdulhamid Ali, an undergraduate CS student at the Allen school! 

Swipe right to learn more about Abdulhamid's love for CS, his hobbies and interests, and his advice for first-generation students! <3 

Ahana Roy

Our fourth Humans of GEN1 interview is with Ahana Roy, an undergraduate CS student at the Allen school! 

Swipe right to learn more about Ahana's motivation for studying CS, her hobbies and interests, and her perspective as a first-generation Allen School student! <3 

Emmy Ngo

Our third Humans of GEN1 interview is with Emmy Ngo, an undergraduate CS student at the Allen school! 

Swipe right to learn more about Emmy's motivation for studying CS, her academic journey, and her perspective on being a first-generation student! <3 J

Judy Kang

Our next Humans of GEN1 interview is with Judy Kang! Judy is a junior majoring in computer science, was previously GEN1's secretary, and is now co-president of @cseeduw.  

Swipe right to learn more about Judy's experience being a first-gen student at the Allen school, and the advice that she has for her younger self! <3

Gabriel Sison

Our first Humans of GEN1 interview of the school year is here with Gabriel Sison, an undergraduate CS student. 

Swipe right to learn more about Gabriel's experience being a first-gen student at the Allen school, and the advice that he has! <3

2022 - 2023

Maral Saikhanaa

Here is our last Humans of GEN1 interview! This time, we have Maral Saikhanaa who is a sophomore studying computer science and one of our amazing GEN1ntern!!

Swipe right to read more about her journey and the advice that she has for her younger self and other first-gen students!


Eman Mustefa

Our next interview is with Eman Mustefa! Eman is currently GEN1's treasurer and one of the founders of GEN1!

Swipe to read more about her journey before coming to the Allen School, her advice for her younger self, and her biggest inspiration!

Kent Zeng

Our Humans of GEN1 series is continuing this week and it features our GEN1 Co-Chair, Kent Zeng!

Swipe to read more about his journey, involvements, and advice that he has!

Stanley Yang

This week's Humans of GEN1 interview features Stanley Yang, he's a first year majoring in computer science! 

Swipe to read more about his advice to his younger self and other first-gen students!

Betty Cheng

Our next interview for our Humans of GEN1 series is featuring Betty Cheng!! She is a second year and was a Girls Who Code alumni!

Check out her interview to hear about her interests and how she has been involved in the Allen School!

Amy Cheng

Introducing our upcoming Humans of GEN1 interview, presenting Amy Cheng! She is a Girls Who Code Alumni and currently pursuing a degree in computer science and entrepreneurship.

Swipe to learn more about her journey to and in the Allen School!

Sophia Lin

Our latest Humans of GEN1 interview features Sophia Lin! Sophia is a freshmen studying computer science and is also the historian for Ability!

Swipe to read more about Sophia's journey as a first-gen student and how she launched a summer coding program for young students with her sisters!

Logan Dinh

Our latest Humans of GEN1 interview features Logan Dinh! Logan is currently a sophomore and also a TA for CSE121!

Swipe to read more about Logan's journey in the Allen School and his personal growth as a first generation student!!

EJ Pinera

Our first Humans of GEN1 interview of the school year is here! This is an interivew with EJ Pinera 🤩

EJ is the Student Leadership Developement Coordinator on the Diversity & Access Team!

Swipe right to learn more about EJ's experience being a first-gen student, and some advice he has! <3


This Humans of GEN1 interview is with David, who has been our 2021-22 Vice Chair and our 2020-21 Secretary!
Swipe to read David's reflection on his motivations and his journey to the Allen School. David will be graduating this Spring 2022 and we wish him well!  

You can read David's full interview here

Our next Humans of GEN1 interview is with Aerin, who has been our chair for the last two years and was one of the founding members of GEN1!
Swipe to read Aerin's reflection on their college experiences and personal growth as a first-generation student<3 Aerin will be graduating this Spring 2022 and we wish her the best! 

Dr. Kurtis Heimerl

Our latest Humans of GEN1 interview is with Dr. Kurtis Heimerl, an Assistant Professor in the Allen School! Dr. Heimerl works in the Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICTD) lab and his research focuses on improving internet access for all. He shared with us details about his undergrad journey and why he decided to pursue a career in academia. Check out the highlights of this interview!

For our latest installment of Humans of GEN1, we interviewed MS/BS student Andrey Ryabtsev who immigrated to the United States from Russia after a brief stop in Israel as a child. Andrey is set to graduate with dual degrees June of this year! Congratulations Andrey!

For our latest Humans of GEN1, we decided to interview Ege Caglar, a second-year undergraduate at the Allen School! Ege details his transition from the Turkish school system to an American university. 

For our latest installment of Humans of GEN1, we interviewed undergraduate student Samek Mulepati, who is not only a first-generation college student but also a first-generation immigrant to the US. In his interview, Samek reflects on navigating English as a second language, attending a post-secondary educational institution in the US at the same time as his mother, and his journey in finding his passion for Computer Science and coming to the Allen School.

For our next Humans of GEN1, we got to interview undergraduate Ardi Madadi. Ardi is a student and researcher at the Allen School who only recently came to the US in 2016!

For our second interview in the Humans of GEN1 Series, we decided to interview Shariya Ali, who is graduating from the Allen School this year! In an inspiring exchange with one of our interviewers, Shariya details the risks she took throughout her journey to get to where she is today.

Humans of GEN1 aims to shout out exemplary individuals at the Allen School who identify as first generation. Our first interview is with Allen School Academic Advisor and GEN1 Staff Advisor, Leslie Ikeda!