Student Spotlight: Hannah Sieben, 2020-21 GPSS Vice President of Legislative Affairs

What is your position with GPSS and what are some of your current responsibilities?
I’m serving as the Vice President of Legislative Affairs for GPSS. In this role, I’m responsible for developing and passing our legislative agenda in the fall quarter and then advocating on those issues during the legislative session. I also get to serve as chair for the Legislative Advisory Board and work with my colleagues to plan Grad Day on the Hill, where we help graduate students meet with legislators to talk about issues they care about.

What are your goals for GPSS?
My goal for GPSS is to help make graduate and professional students a greater priority when we’re talking about higher education. Graduate students are in a unique position as we often are students and employees at UW, but we lack a lot of the state resources that our undergraduate peers receive (funding, insurance, etc.). I want to leave this year knowing that every legislator I’ve talked with recognizes the importance of graduate students and all the things we are capable of achieving.

In what way has the HUB/HUB staff contributed to your Husky Experience?
This is probably the only year in the history of the HUB that you can work in the HUB and yet never actually meet any of the staff in person. That being said, I still feel like I’ve gotten so much support, which really is a testament to how the HUB staff engages with UW students. I’ve been able to meet with my advisors for virtual coffee, call them for any reason (really at any hour of the day), and connect with ASUW and RSOs on Zoom. I can only imagine how much fun it would be to get to actually spend all that time in the HUB for this work — I will definitely be coming back after the pandemic.

What are your favorite Husky traditions?
My favorite Husky tradition is walking through the cherry blossoms on campus in spring! 

Fun Fact!
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Texas I rode my bike from Texas to Alaska to raise money for cancer research. It took 70 days and was more than 4,500 miles!