Nan Wu Hultgren and her husband, Eric Hultgren, both PhDs, have formed strong and beautiful connection with UC Irvine. Nan earned her Doctorate of Philosophy in cellular and molecular biology from UC Irvine in 2018. While she was studying in Irvine, her and Eric both lived in campus grad housing for five years. They even had their first child during that five-year span. As a result of their experiences on campus, both Nan and Eric felt compelled to help current and future graduate students, including funding for childcare and other resources so that they may attend professional and academic conferences.
What compelled you to give back UC Irvine graduate and postdoctoral scholars?
Nan: We wanted to start an endowment to support student parents, especially graduate and postdocs or even earlier career scientists that are starting a family and child caring. I had my first child as a third-year grad student and the average age is increasing for grad students. Many people want to start a family or they are in the age range where this is happening. But, of course, there are a lot of challenges. It’s definitely not a traditional route many people take. Just from my personal experience, I felt like it would be nice to have more support both financially and having a community. Including accommodations and resources both personnel resources or facility-based resources. So that’s kind of why we wanted to wanted to do this.
And specifically naming the study room, we just liked the idea of having a quiet place for these grad students, parents or not, to be able to step away and be able to focus on whatever they wanted. Whether they want to finish their dissertation, prepare a publication or getting in a meeting where they’re not disturbed.
Eric: I could not improve on what Nan already said but I will add that one of my intentions in giving back is due to the fact that I was a beneficiary of financial aid when I was a student and I want to pay that forward.
Why have you stayed so connected to UC Irvine and the Graduate Division as an alumna?
Nan: I just had an amazing experience as a graduate student at UC Irvine. I highly recommend it to anybody. I feel like, even though UCI might not be a big name like Stanford, Eric is actually a PhD from Stanford, and both of us have friends that are PhD from many other places, and it just seems to me that you UC Irvine is so dedicated to their students. They’re so student-centered and they try to do everything they can to help. They really care about student experience they’re not just using them as cheap laborers; they’re really want to nurture and support them for their own future development. I don’t think some of these big-name schools can say that, not even close. That’s why I really wanted to be part of this community, to help UCI continue to support all the current and future students in whatever aspects I can.
As I said, we had our first child when we were there. We took dance lessons there and that is how we found the instructor that coached us for our first dance at our wedding. We took our engagement photos in Aldrich Park. It’s a beautiful place with such great amenities both on campus and nearby off campus. Being a student, all the support that is available, that’s why we love the place.
Eric: The campus housing was really nice. As an affiliate, I also had access to the same amenities. I loved the Anteater Rec Center, it was fantastic. Probably my biggest regret from that time was not going there more (laughing). I missed it as soon as we left campus housing.
