Beyond Boundaries Program Newsletter - Jan/Feb 2023 Issue

Fellow.

Photo Paul Nordmann, The Source WUSTL

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Andrew Breton

Manhattan, NY | Class of 2026

Intended Majors Economics & Strategy, Theater Arts

WashU Journey I wanted to have the option to navigate … other passions that I want to focus on … and I saw that they had an amazing business program and as well as like I had read somewhere that [nearly half of the] business students take their classes outside of Olin … [that] showed me that I’ll be able to explore other options compared to other colleges that I know that if you choose, you have to choose your major right away.

I had done WashU Preview [and fell in love with] the open curriculum [and] the way [WashU Preview] pushed for exclusivity and community. I didn’t feel the need to look at other colleges after looking at WashU ’cause I just thought “I'm going to love it here”...

Why BB?

Entrepreneurs [think similarly to] chess grandmasters … having specific strategies that you need to play, and being very specific in the moves, whether that’s like on the board and even outside of the board and as well as drama of theatre.

[It’s] that interdisciplinary idea or that community of just supporting you, that like understanding that yes, you have so many different interests now let’s just figure out how we can just combine this.

I love [BB’s Endgame of Entrepreneurship] entrepreneurship class. I kind of developed [my Beyond Boundaries “big question”] during my senior year … We were in the topic of sweatshops specifically like in Vietnam, how like they have many sweatshops to manufacture, like sweaters, I guess to America.

However, there’s poor health conditions there, but within and we have learned in class, [for example regarding sweatshop workers] … [there’s this] condition where it’s like OK, their health is on the line but so [are] their financials … making one decision will hurt the other one, and that’s kind of what I want to figure out. How can I use business ideas, economical ideas, global studies … what do I need, what do I need to study and learn in order to figure out how can we maneuver and handle these types of situations internationally?

… I’m so glad I took the [Beyond Boundaries Entrepreneurship] class … how can we attack actual, sustainable developmental goals like zero hunger? I feel like I’m already starting off with step one with the entrepreneurial mindset. [In the spring] I’ll be taking [To Sustainability and Beyond: People, Planet, Prosperity].

First-year seminar fun! Portrait by Catherine Chung

WHAT’S YOUR STORY? Andrew Breton

Favorite acting challenge? I think my favorite challenge in acting [is] not knowing what’s next … especially like improv, where it’s that “yes, and concept” – just be ready for the unexpected.

One of the nights [onstage during IntotheWoods] when I had put the stools down, I actually scraped myself and I was bleeding … during the scenes that [Cinderella’s] stepsisters got their toes cut off.

… I had to like hold it being very serious as … when I gave the shoe back to Cinderella, I accidentally got blood on it…

Even though it was unexpected, it was just so funny ’cause the narrator says, “And Cinderella puts on the bloody slipper on!” … Even with that minor pain, I guess you can say, I felt like it was worth it just for that movie that just brought joy to me.

The beginning of rehearsals were … pretty scary ’cause I was the only freshman … Like when we did our table read, everyone just sounded amazing and I’m like I don't even know how [my] steward role will sound right now … But when we had done the 1st run of act one. The director … was telling people specific notes … When she got to my part she was like “Andrew.”

And she was like, “You're doing your homework!”

… Everyone clapped for me, [like] “Yeah, you nailed like your part.”

How Andrew conquers the stage:

I just convince [or] tell myself: “Hey this is for you … performing [and] expressing those different characters as an actor [is] something that I love ... You don’t care if there’s just one or 1000 people there, it’s just for me that I’m [acting], it’s something that I love.”

I’m in the Spring production. It’s called “F ing A.” I’m playing the scribe … I’ve read a little bit of the script and it’s [a] dark production.

… One of the overall things … that have really made [WashU] feel like home is just the amount of support … Rob reached out to me before classes even started. After there was a shooting near my hometown and from that moment I kind of knew, oh, it’s really amazing that he’s paying attention to all of us and cares about all of us … which I really appreciated.

… I loved my WUSAs, I loved my RAs, so getting to learn from them and ask questions and even my advisors. I love my advisors and I think all that support and how much people really care about you and care about learning your name and your story – a little bit cheesy – [but] really is what has made WashU feel like home.

… I think this [meeting] everybody and being able to hang out with everybody at Dardick was such a good experience.

Choosing Majors

… I think I chose business initially because I knew that it would teach me so many skills that could be really applied in any industry or any kind of discipline and … so I think that’s why the business side came through in terms of education all throughout high school I was pretty involved in.

[Education classes] have been my favorite classes every semester and the professors are amazing and everything that we learn is [relevant]… They’re also usually discussion based, so I’m sure that that has helped because I love discussion-based classes where students with different viewpoints … [we] examine the problems that we see at WashU or just in higher education.

Volunteering

At WashU it’s been a little bit weird with COVID, but I’ve been tutoring for almost my entire time [through the YMCA’s virtual literacy tutoring program], so I tutored a little girl for two years and she’s in Saint Louis Public School District … but I would say this specific niche in terms of education has changed a little bit coming into WashU. I originally wanted to go to law school and help work on disability law and I don’t know that I want to go to law school anymore …

I’m going to keep that volunteering and connection to education in my personal life, even if it’s [not] present in my professional life.

Katrin

WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Katrin Gatz WHAT’S YOUR STORY?

Most surprising class? I took a [discussion-based class called “The Mental Health Crisis in Higher Education”] …we read a few books that … [sought] to analyze why there is such a big mental health crisis in K12 and higher education today … [it changed how I] critically thought … about why we got to where we are today, and what administration and the college admissions process and [schools] in general should be doing to try to mitigate some of the big mental health issues that we're seeing on college campuses.

Education & Business ... My education classes have greatly impacted how I think. In my business classes and vice versa, when I’m thinking about the skills that I’ve learned in those business classes specifically ... a lot of the problem-solving skills, how to effectively communicate which can be helpful in both … ’cause your idea is only as good as your ability to communicate “This is why I think this should happen” or “This is why I think that X issue is so important and why we need to be able to focus more resources, funnel more resources into helping to mitigate this problem.” I think that my business class of classes have also helped with some of the nonprofit work that I’ve done on the side outside of WashU.

Internships & Giving Back I did some work with Starkloff Disability Institute [in St. Louis], the summer of 2021, so I think that those communication skills were able to help there and then [summer of 2020], did some work with DiveHeart which is a really cool nonprofit organization that uses scuba diving as physical therapy for disabled people and for veterans, they’re based in the Chicago suburbs, but I think that a lot of those skills that I’ve learned in business classes have helped immensely … I do think that those skills are really going to carry over while I’m trying to do more of the social impact work, whether it be through specific nonprofit or educational social impact consulting roles or just volunteering my time with those organizations.

My sophomore year I was a WUSA which was different than the traditional WUSA experience, because that was fully online and … but then all of my junior year [I] was a FYCA so I was in charge. I supervised 11 WUSAs and then myself and all of the other FYCAs and staff helped to plan Bear Beginnings which was a really cool experience too. To help make sure that such a large-scale program went according to plan –yeah, I really [liked] that so I think that was a really great way to give back to WashU.

Katrin and fellow Beyond Boundaries student

Dhillon Miyashiro celebrated early graduations December 2022.

Launching the “first astronauts”!

August NEWS

2022 All cohort ice

Beyond Boundaries Practium Intern Katrina Hungary