Norwegian Embassy
In mid-September before my senior year, I was given the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C. and shadow for a week at the Royal Norwegian Embassy. This was an amazing experience. I got to sit down with many of the different diplomats and ask them about their work, even getting a chance to talk with the ambassador (for seven minutes). I got to tour the Capitol with a Norwegian parliamentary delegation, which was incredible, and I got to explore D.C. on the weekend before I went home. Overall, this was one of my favorite experiences and I'm so grateful to the Scandinavian Studies dept. for the opportunity.
UW Food Pantry
Volunteering at the UW Food pantry has been one of the most meaningful experiences during my time at UW. The Food Pantry focuses on reducing food insecurity for members of the UW community as well as destigmatization of food insecurity in general. I got to spend time doing food gleaning or food recovery from various locations on campus, as well as working in the pantry itself and helping out that way. Volunteering here felt more important to me than a lot of the things I did academically, even though this was totally unconnected from my personal and academic goals.